Mental blocking

Whoops. ArabianBusiness.com has finally been blocked by Etishite. After a quick bypass of the proxy, we can't see anything offensive, unless its the exclusive about Dubai Mall being delayed again. Apparently the site falls foul of the Prohibited Content Categories. Does anyone know who has had their feathers ruffled over the website's content? Or was a Motivate minion a bit bored, and contacted the TRA to get the site blocked?

7 sent

From a commenter:

Can we get a thread going on City 7’s X factor-style hunt for a new women’s show presenter(s)? It’s proper car-crash TV, which is ironic as it’s hosted by Adam whassisname, the car safety expert. It’s required viewing if you can stand the sheer horror of watching a bunch of impressionable bints being patronized by a panel of cretins who all look like extras from a M&M’s advert. One life-affirming moment follows another as the bald guy and the two fat girls exercise their idiocy in a studio setting not too dissimilar to those that Al Qaeda use when they’re X-factoring their hostages heads off.

For sure. We didn't even realise City 7 still existed!

Impressionable bints being patronised by cretins? Sounds like a regular Tuesday night in Scarletts.

On-Air Swear

Virgin DJ Revin John has been fired for reading an "offensive article" on air:

Mahmoud Al-Rasheed, general manager of Arab Radio Network, told Arabian Business in an emailed statement on Wednesday that the presenter had been asked to leave for “inappropriate on-air conduct”.

John, who is originally from South Africa, is believed to have read an interview on-air which was offensive for religious reasons.

The sacking follows an interview John gave with Dubai newspaper Gulf News in June, in which he said he had “studied the Middle Eastern market thoroughly” before his arrival.

And a DMO commenter already has more:

Virgin Morning show presenter Revin John has been released of his duties with immediate effect. This apperantly stems from him airing a pre-recorded "joke" in which he communicates to God, asking Him what was on his agenda. The deep voice over replied "world peace, Madonna and Britney." That's just part of the gag, but you get the gist of it. It appears Haks aren't the only ones here who can easily get the sack for their "public" mistakes, eh?

Just a thought

Has anyone at ITP proofread the programme for the Media & Marketing Show conference, which is hosted by ITP and Arabian Business? Would have been nice if they could spell Saatchi and Saatchi right, and I'm not sure Joseph Ghossoub would be particularly overjoyed to be plain ole Jo in the agenda. Delighted to see Martin Newland is giving a presentation on What it takes to survive in Middle East Journalism. But what I really want to know is: what the hell are Forenoon Sessions?

And before you start squealing about how we're always slagging ITP off, we're not. We try and post other topics, but you lot end up at the same conclusion anyway. But, to be honest, schoolboy errors like this one are just asking for mockery.

Campaign the Sequel

Hurray, Campaign's coming back at the end of the month! Will it have the same wit, bite and verve under new management at Motivate? Will it slag off its own advertisers? And, more importantly, will The Spin be back?

With the recent launch of Mediaweek by ENG, there's plenty of newsprint dedicated to marketing and advertising. Is the market big enough for these titles plus Communicate and Gulf Marketing Review?

Media vs Media

Poor old Gulf News is unhappy with the latest Fleet Street coverage of Dubai - article here:

Two articles published three days apart from each other in leading British newspapers lashed out at how expatriates live and work in the UAE. The list of criticism included: the state of thousands of labourers, the thriving business of prostitution, the status of the 'rich' and 'pampered' Emiratis who are the only group enjoying the oil wealth, 'racism' of all forms and shapes, lack of accountability and transparency, the demographic imbalance, and of course, the case of sex on the public beach.

[...]

Hence, when such articles of criticism appear, they come across as a reminiscent of an ignorant bygone colonial era. Unfortunately, and much so disappointedly, some seem to be still entrapped in the old mentality of discriminatory bias between East and West.

So know now that objecting to slavery, oppression, discrimination and racism makes you a ignorant biased Colonialist.

War resumes on the National front

Oh what a capital cock-up.

The National, owned and edited in Abu Dhabi, has had to print a retraction of a story that ran on the front page of its Business section, claiming that Dubai house prices fell 16 per cent. The story was particularly timely as it ran on the first day of Cityscape. Unfortunately, that meant it was particularly high profile coverage. Is that the smell of sweat and fear, and the sounds of clashing drums, cymbals and rolling heads, in The National's offices? Sources tell us that Dubai Inc has "gone mental" over the story, especially as it comes at a time where question marks have been placed over the city's ability to maintain its real estate market in light of the global economic crisis.

Here is the retraction:

In today’s edition, The National incorrectly cited a report by Colliers International as saying that Dubai house prices fell by 16 per cent in the second quarter. Colliers actually said the rate of growth in prices slowed to 16 per cent in the second quarter from 43 per cent in the previous quarter. The National also incorrectly quoted the regional director of Colliers International, Ian Albert, as saying that prices had fallen. He said that the rate of growth had slowed. The National regrets the errors.

Regrets the error? I'll bet it does. Expect to see a number of fawning "Dubai is good" stories over the next few weeks until the fuss dies down, and The National can return to its familiar Dubai-bashing ways.

Now that's what I call news, volume 1

When is a newspaper not a newspaper? When it's the Cityscape show daily. The event doesn't start until tomorrow (it runs until October 9th), yet each day's edition is already done and dusted. The cut and thrust of journalism at the "world's largest real estate event"...