Middle East money fund targets US media

• Certain media "define the daily discourse" and don't like it when certain others tell the truth instead. Enter Dubai, et al:

From the Street.com: "Middle Eastern investors are interested in more than just plowing money into U.S. financial firms such as Citigroup. They're looking to break into the U.S. media arena, normally the domain of heavy hitters including Rupert Murdoch.

• Commercial real estate investment firm Blumberg Capital Partners (based in Florida) is planning to launch its first fund to invest in U.S. media companies, and its investor base will consist of Middle East-based entities, TheStreet.com has learned.

The fund, for which CEO Philip Blumberg says there is interest amounting to at least $500 million, would target newspapers as well as Hollywood movie studios, online media outfits, broadcast news and possibly radio businesses. Including the use of leverage, the fund will have buying power of approximately $1.5 billion and could kick off by the second quarter next year, Blumberg says.....

• It's "...a notion sparked in large part by existing real estate clients in investment hotbeds like oil-rich United Arab Emirate states Dubai and Abu Dhabi, which have expressed a desire to own Western media and entertainment companies. ...."

(The following paragraph would not have been possible without radio host MICHAEL SAVAGE:) sm

TheStreet.com: "There is a much higher degree of awareness there that U.S. media can affect non-U.S. interests in a direct way," Blumberg said,

• referring to some of his contacts' and clients' unfavorable perception of the U.S. media's coverage of the botched deal for Dubai to buy U.S. ports in 2006."

(Savage wants you to know when you're being sold out. That makes the honchos indignant).

• From theStreet.com, "Middle Easterners Ready to Pounce on US Media," by Liz Rappaport, 11/30/07. Via Poynter.org/Romenesko

P.S. This will all take place without a peep from Americans who are asleep at the wheel and too pacified to defend themselves. (sm)

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