Sullivan Street, SoHo, May 2007

Need any more evidence that it’s all infotainment?

Ignorant, crass, and entertaining Rosie O’Donnell—who not only dared show her face on television after Donald Trump called her a fat slob but continued their feud without pausing to take a breath, may get a cable show (unless this is all a lot of PR bullshit, which is a possibility you should never discount. After all, I wouldn’t hire Rosie O’Donnell for anything in the world, but them I’m not a TV executive dying for ratings).

What I find quite curious, however, is that this Daily News article, with the help of go-to media-culture guy (when Neal Gabler isn’t available) Robert Thompson (who is a professor and should know better) conflates cable news with cable talk.

Cable news insiders yesterday suggested she could talk to the Fox News Channel. An actual deal with Fox News might be a long shot, though, because that would put O’Donnell on the same channel as her nemesis Bill O’Reilly.

However, giving O’Donnell a prime-time talk show on a news channel isn’t such a wacky idea, says Syracuse University popular culture Prof. Robert Thompson.

“If I were MSNBC, I would really be courting her to go up against O’Reilly,” Thompson said. “For so long, they’ve been looking for a different perspective.”

Thompson also noted that prime-time shows on cable news channels are usually hosted by someone with strong opinions and a desire to talk, which O’Donnell has displayed along the way.

Cable talk may be just one option of many O’Donnell faces as she decides what to do after leaving “The View” next month.

She has done morning TV, Thompson said. “Her next step should be the cable opinion show.”

More about this another time. Meanwhile, remember: most of the time we want to escape from reality rather than have our noses rubbed in it…so infotainment rules. Still: cable “news” and cable “talk” are two different things.

While everyone in Israel is angling for position now that Olmert has gotten a 0% popularity rating and Nasrallah is singing nyeh nyeh nyeh boo boo, I’m watching Gaza to see what’s going on among Israel’s putative partners for peace.

Here’s what’s going on: al Qaeda (or someone affliated with it, or involved in al Qaeda-type thinking) is pressuring Hamas, as evidenced by a Guardian story about abducted BBC journalist Alan Johnston. Apparently Haniyeh is in negotiations with Johnston’s kidnappers [e.a.]:

 The letters from Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh have sought to “clarify to these people [the kidnappers] that this issue doesn’t serve the interest of our people, and the Muslims,” said the aide, Ahmed Youssef. …

Youssef said the kidnappers had not demanded any ransom and suggested they were a militant Muslim group.

“Money is not the issue. The issue is an incorrect understanding of Islam, how to deal with foreigners in general, an incorrect understanding of Islam among some,” he said.

Youssef declined to discuss the kidnappers’ identities or ideology. “Any discussions about it will harm this issue,” he said.

 For what it’s worth, Abbas also released a quote:

“We know where the journalist is, and we want to preserve his life and we want to save him, and this needs time,” Abbas was quoted as saying by the official Wafa news agency.

They seem to be afraid to say anything more for fear that Johnston will be killed by his kidnappers.

You’ll note that just a couple of days ago, al Qaeda was publicly provoking and goading Hamas. From a story published in the L.A. Times:

An Al Qaeda leader called on the Palestinian group Hamas to fight Israel with “bombs and fire.”

“Where is revenge, where are the bombs, where is the fire?” Abu Yahya al-Libi asked members of the military wing of Hamas in a video posted on a website used by Islamist militant groups.

Al Qaeda views Hamas as a moderate group that has compromised the rights of Palestinians for political gains.

A war of words between Hamas and al Qaeda has been going on for a while. Here’s one story from mid-March:

Hamas to al-Qaeda: Stop baseless accusations

 

Fury in Hamas after al-Qaeda deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri ‘eulogizes’ the movement, saying it has surrendered and betrayed its principles. Hamas: ‘We will not forsake a single grain of the sand of Palestine’

Here’s another story from mid-April:

‘Al-Qaeda operating in Gaza’

 

PA security officials say global jihad group targeting Palestinian leaders, secular Muslims

Al-Qaeda is operating in the Gaza Strip and previously attempted to assassinate Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and other top leaders from Abbas’ Fatah party, according to Palestinian security officials.

Can it be any more obvious that al Qaeda is operating with total impunity in Gaza, where there are currently no Western reporters?

Can it be any more obvious that al Qaeda took Johnston hostage as leverage against Hamas, which has been deemed to be not sufficiently Islamic to suit al Qaeda? that al Qaeda is now trying to hijack the Palestinian cause, for its own ends?

I last wrote about “al Qaeda-type thinking” in Gaza a few weeks ago. That phrase ran in both the New York Times and the International Herald Tribune on April 16.

No one has picked up on it since. Because they’re afraid that Johnston will be killed by his kidnappers. That’s how terrorism works: it’s extortion.

I’m sorry to be back to blogging. It was so much nicer to lose myself in the sights of downtown Manhattan for my impromptu photo project.

But no one else is writing about this—there’s a virtual news blackout—so it falls to me to document what I’ve been able to put together.