It took nearly two weeks for Fox News to take the news that bidding for a joint ownership of One World Trade Center had narrowed down to two companies (Related and Durst) and turn it into an all-caps chyroned story: “COULD THE MIDDLE EAST OWN THE WTC?” See, the Port Authority, pressed because of the real-estate market, is offering to let developers buy into the World Trade Center and jointly own and operate it. The logic goes that because Related, one of the largest developers in America, has partnered financially with developers and banks in companies that operate out of the Middle East, if Related wins the bidding process, the region would then own the World Trade Center.
This is the potential development that is keeping Fox News up tonight, because the World Trade Center is a national landmark, and that whole thing with Mother Teresa and the Empire State Building was so last week. (Never mind that Abu Dhabi actually does own that other Manhattan landmark, the Chrysler Building.) We do not recommend that you watch this entire video, partially because analyst Peter Johnson Jr. is difficult to listen to and seems to have a lot of trouble with his script. But if you fast forward to about 2:50 in, you’ll hear Johnson say, incredulously: “The ties are so close between Related and the Arab finance community that Related has formed a joint venture based in Abu Dhabi with one of the largest Arab equity and asset managers.”
In case you’re having trouble imagining what that “joint venture” might be, Fox helpfully runs some stock footage of what appear to be Arab terrorists carrying weapons around dusty hills just to help you out.
