Barack Hussein Obama chose his first media interview as President of theUnited States carefully. It was not given to one of the mainstream Western mediachannels like CNN or BBC but to al Arabiya, an Arab language mediabroadcaster known for its objective and seasoned analysis. The Obama interviewbroadcast on January 26, 2009 across West Asia shot up al-Arabiya’sviewership rating in the Arab world and for the first time overtook the morepopular channel, al-Jazeera’s top viewership spot. This by itself showshow much West Asians are looking forward to Obama for a change in US policytowards the region. [Transcript.Video: PartI, PartII]