August 4, 2011
http://www.politico.com
CNBC Drops World Business
Posted by Keach Hagey
CNBC has pulled the week end general commercial operation show, World Business, after the blog edited by Gordon Browns sister-in-law found which the shows production company was doubling as the PR organisation for Malaysian politicians.
The blog, the Sarawak Report, declared after one of the states upon the island of Borneo, reported which the London-based radio production-company, FBC Media, had the stipulate with Sarawaks Chief Minister, Taib Mahmud, to improve his general image. It suggests FBC carried out this stipulate in part by smoke pieces in the headlines shows it produced.
In light of serious questions lifted final week, CNBC rught away beginning an hearing of FBC as well as the commercial operation practices as well as has withdrawn the module World Business indefinitely, Brian Steel, comparison vice president of media family during CNBC, told POLITICO.
World Business did not run in the U.S. market, but aired in Europe upon Friday nights as well as in Asia upon Saturday evenings.
FBC Media, short for Fact Based Communications, was formed in 1998 as the European-based media as well as entertainment organisation specialising in radio format creation, production as well as distribution, according to the cached version of the website. Its active website has apparently been taken down.
The companys executive chairman is Alan Friedman, an American publisher who interned in the Carter White House as well as worked as the columnist for the Financial Times as well as Wall Street Journal. Last year, he wrote for The Atlantic as the special match from Davos.
Although staffers were around to answer phones during FBC Media upon Wednesday, messages left for Friedman were not returned.
On Friedmans Wikipedia page, FBC Media is listed as as the the London-based vital communications, national branding as well as radio as well as online calm organisation with interests primarily in Europe, the Middle East as well as Asia.
FBC Media is listed in lobbying reports as having paid tens of thousands of dollars to Washington-based lobbying organisation APCO in new years to run upon seductiveness of the Malaysian government, the blog points out.
FBC Media has additionally constructed calm for an array of top headlines broadcasters, together with CNN as well as the BBC.
Although the Sarawak Report alleges which CNN has carried the series of shows done by FBC, together with the series of interviews with [Malaysian Prime Minister] Najib [Razak] by the companys President, John Defterios, the CNN mouthpiece says this is not true.
CNNs new talk with the Malaysian Prime Minister was set up solely by CNN with the PMs office, CNN mouthpiece Lauren Cone told POLITICO. John Defterios became the full-time employee with CNN in March, during which time he cut off his affiliation with FBC.
Cone combined which there has never been the stipulate in between CNN as well as FBC to lift any editorial calm upon CNN, as well as the usually FBC calm CNN has carried is FBC advertorial, obviously labeled, in commercial time.
A orator from the BBC pronounced the broadcaster was not aware of some of the report provided as well as you will! inspect the claims done as the matter of urgency.
All independent TV companies who make shows from BBC World News have to pointer strict agreements to ensure against conf! lict of interest, the orator said.
As the precautionary step, you will not promote programmes done by FBC while you demeanour into these claims.
The Sarawak Report was founded as well as is edited by Clare Rewcastle Brown, an environmental publisher who lived in Sarawak as the child as well as is the visit censor of Mahmuds leadership as well as the impact upon Sarawaks rainforests.