Monday, November 19, 2007

Najwa Qasim is now a prominently featured anchorperson at Al-Arabiya TV. Al-Arabiya TV has a problem that has been pointed out in Arab media: unlike Aljazeera, the network has not produced one star. Muntaha Ar-Ramahi (formerly of AlJazeera) is the most well-known but she does not compare to Aljazeera's "stars"--without commenting on whether it is good or bad to have stars. So Al-Qasim (formerly a Hariri TV reporter) tries to distinguish herself by these constant chit-chats and attempts at humor. She is very unfunny. Somebody needs to tell her that. She jokes in every news hour and she has never once been funny. If I were her, I would suspend all attempts of humor at once. Or, she may warn viewers that she is about to joke and then we can flee. Yet, she was dead serious when she "reported" on the humanitarian gesture of King `Abdullah when he helped a man to the stage at the OPEC summit. Where is the oxygen mask when you need it?