Al Arabiya claims a victory over its more popular rival, Al-Jazeera, over the news cycle about Iran.  Al-Jazeera has had unprecedented access in Iran, because Qatar (which owns the channel) is close to the Iranian regime, and had refrained from critical coverage.  But Arab viewers wanted to see blood: 

"Al Arabiya aired a shocking footage of the demonstrations and bloody clashes with the Basij and in which gunshots were heard. The video, which Al Arabiya obtained from BBC Persian, was broadcast without a comment, a rather unprecedented way of news broadcasting. For almost 10 hours, Al Arabiya kept broadcasting a rerun of the controversial video. On the other hand, al-Jazeera only ran a brief story on the clashes then moved to Somalia right away."

"Had al-Jazeera presented full coverage of the events in Iran within the framework of its usual political stance [i.e. pro-Iranian], what happened in Iran would have been a conspiracy by the West. However, because Al Arabiya came first, it became obvious to all Arab viewers that what is happening in Iran is a crime and that its regime is a big lie. Al-Jazeera was struck with a mysterious curse that turned it from a fiery, controversial channel that "stirs stagnant waters," according to its famous slogan, to a passive, timid one. Al Arabiya exchanged roles with al-Jazeera and is now the fiery, exciting channel. Al-Jazeera used to side with the people whereas Al Arabiya sided with the regimes. Now it's the other way round."

-Jon

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