News Corp shareholder funds Imam who is building GZ Mosque

[Einzige]

http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0821/fox-sh ... sque-imam/

The second largest shareholder in News Corp. — the parent company of Fox News — has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to causes linked to the imam planning to build a Muslim community center and mosque near Ground Zero in Manhattan, says a report from Yahoo!News.

According to the report from Yahoo!’s John Cook, Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, who owns seven percent of News Corp., “has directly funded [Imam Feisal Abdul] Rauf’s projects to the tune of more than $300,000.”

Cook reports that Prince Al-Waleed’s personal charity, the Kingdom Foundation, donated $305,000 to Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow, a project sponsored by two of Rauf’s initiatives, the American Society for Muslim Advancement and the Cordoba Initiative, which is building the Manhattan mosque.

That Fox News’ second-largest shareholder, after Rupert Murdoch, has financial links to the “Ground Zero mosque” will be seen as ironic by critics of the news network, who have watched with chagrin as the network’s talking heads attempt to link the mosque to radical Islamism.

Last week, Daily Show host Jon Stewart lambasted Fox panelist Eric Bolling’s attempt to link the Cordoba Initiative to Hamas and Iran. Stewart used News Corp.’s connections to Prince Al-Waleed, and the prince’s connections to the Carlyle Group and Osama bin Laden to make a tongue-in-cheek argument that Fox News may be a “terrorist command center.”

My irony meter has broken.

[Eleas]

Well, why not? Fox creates an enemy suitable for attack. Even if it were true, it would make perfect economic sense as an investment. And it's not as if its viewer base would not disregard the connection entirely, remember?

[Phantasee]

Your title is very misleading. News Corp is not funding this mosque, and the prince is not News Corp. If anyone can be said to be News Corp, it's Rupert Murdoch, and that's not just because he's the largest shareholder.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Yeah... that's an incredibly misleading title. A Saudi prince funding a mosque isn't really news.

[Enigma]

Your title is very misleading. News Corp is not funding this mosque, and the prince is not News Corp. If anyone can be said to be News Corp, it's Rupert Murdoch, and that's not just because he's the largest shareholder.

Yet according to the article, Rupert Murdoch is Fox News' second largest shareholder AND has links to the "Ground Zero Mosque". So how is this misleading? Because according to you, Rupert Murdoch can be said to be News Corp.

[Phantasee]

There's nothing in there that says the prince has even donated a dime to this community centre/mosque. He has donated to some of the Imam's causes, but there's nothing in there proving he donated to this specific cause.

This article is stupid and pointless.

[Enigma]

Murdoch is the 1st largest shareholder. Note the article says "second largest, after Rupert Murdoch".

The only connection at all is this donator also happens to own News Corp stock. That's irrelevant: there's metric shitloads of people who own stock in that company, each of which surely have their own personal interests and other donations/investments. People buy stock because they think it will give a good return on their investment, so it doesn't even say anything about his personal political beliefs.

Sorry my bad. Apparently I missed the word "after".

[Lagmonster]

Changed your title to reflect the non-story that someone at rawstory.com was trying to fluff into a shocking news piece.