Does Lebanon Really Need Another News Channel?

The new 24-hour news channel by Hariri’s Future TV seems like a pointless venture.

Illustration: beirutspring.com

I consider myself a news junkie. I’m obsessed with keeping track of the most insignificant of Lebanese developments. I follow trivial statements by the most obscure of Lebanese figures, and I have satellite TV. But even I can’t see how another all-news Future TV can benefit me.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s always nice to have more news, but I just can’t see what need this station is filling and to whom it is aimed. It’s neither ground-breakingly ambitious (The project Manager, Nadim el Munla conceded that its funding is very modest compared to Aljazeera or Alarabiya), nor is it pure local news (“It will cover international news while focusing on Lebanon” he said).

Let’s face it, there are tons of good Arabic satellite news channels out there, and the only reason we watch Lebanese news channels like LBC, Future and OTV is because we want to hear the stuff no one else talks about, like whom Wael Abou Faour insulted, whom the Patriarch had for lunch and what new theory Wi’am wahhab came up with. Hardly Satellite Channel material.

There is however one reason that could justify such a new channel. 

Maybe the folks at Future TV realized that their reputation for objectivity is bottom low, and that by launching a new “serious” news channel, they could access both the market for serious news and that for partisan peddling. If that is the case, it would be a step in the right direction and a cause for celebration.