Biased views against KSA

Late last month, the PBS aired a program under the title “Saudi Arabia Uncovered.” The so-called “thriller” which promised to show an untold story about KSA was a failure by all standards of investigative journalism. The producer James Jones used a Saudi mole with a secret camera to take some shots about what he claims to be extraordinary events taking place in the Kingdom.
The unprofessional, low quality documentary has included some scenes about the religious police, riots by some pro-Iran Shiites in the eastern part of the Kingdom, the case of a blogger, a report about a woman who had defied the ban on driving.
Such events may attract the American viewer, who is the victim of sensational mass media, but these events are actually obsolete and an open secret. The program was simply a collection of news reports. I would be happy to invite the producer to the Kingdom and report things as they are instead of depending on fairy stories by some liars.
I believe that the whole thing wasn’t worth the trouble, because there are many important things in this world that this pseudo revolutionary could have covered instead of deceiving the reader by “uncovering Saudi Arabia.”
As for the religious police, the producer should have been fair and showed the viewers about these men who have no guns to use against violators of the country’s Islamic law and social norms. These men are trying to safeguard morality in the country by fighting smugglers, liquor manufacturing, illegal sexual relations etc, which are the salient features of the permissive Western society. Any sane person would appreciate what they are doing.
When talking about the terror convicts executed earlier this year, the producer highlighted the case of pro-Iran Shiite terrorist Nimr Al-Nimr and deliberately ignored a majority of them who were Sunnis. One should not forget that all the convicts had confessed to their involvement in extremism and terrorism and some of them had targeted Americans too.
The producer also tried to show the Saudi police in poor light by showing them quelling riots. The PBS and other Western media persons should know that the Shiites in the Kingdom are Saudis but they are being used by Iran’s sectarian regime to destabilize the country. It is the duty of the government of any country to protect the public order, and even the US uses the Patriotic Act to enforce law and order.
Undoubtedly, we support anybody who calls for the protection of human rights, but they shouldn’t be selective. This makes us wonder why some Western media and journalists are so aggressive in attacking Saudi Arabia while ignoring atrocities by the Israeli occupation against native Palestinians and the Iranian atrocities against the Arab people of Ahwaz in southern Iran. The “chivalrous” producer should make a film about these two cases.
The producer has also picked a woman, Lujain Hathlul, as a symbol of the people who he thinks are heroes in challenging the long-established norms and traditions of the Kingdom. The West criticizes Saudi Arabia over car driving issues, but fails to talk about women’s achievements in various fields.
The TV program showed a woman and a kid begging near the traffic light, but the the commentator failed to describe if they were Saudis or expatriates. What he doesn’t know is that all the Saudis are covered by the umbrella of social security and free education. Begging for some is a profession and not because they are needy. In Saudi Arabia nobody is dying of hunger. And for the producer’s information, food is being distributed free, especially during the fasting month of Ramadan and the pilgrimage season.
Comparatively, people die in the US if they are not covered by medical insurance, and statistics shows that over 24 million Americans are homeless. I think Mr. James should make a film about the miseries of Americans under the capitalist system, because charity begins at home.