http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/spotlight/anger-in-egypt/
I've got a lot to say about what this situation says about any number of things, primarily what it says about the Egyptian people, what it says about American news organizations, and what it says about our governments international relations.
Al Jazeera's coverage of this has been good, far far better than any of the american news agencies, but I think they've lost something that all news agencies should have: objectivity. Listening to the correspondents and anchors and special guests it becomes clear that there is absolutely no doubt in the organization's mind that the protestors are in the right and that Mubarak is in the wrong. Now, I agree with that, but I'm not a journalist, in order to properly report on something one must remain aloof from the situation and report only the facts, and to pass along rumor and hearsay as such, and most importantly to leave your own opinion out of it. However, despite my professional criticism of them, I am really enjoying watching their coverage BECAUSE of their bias.
American news organizations were very slow to pick up on this story. Sure, you go now to MSNBC, Huffingtonpost, Drudge, FOX, and CNN.com and they headline the page. To be fair, Drudge has been following this from very early on, that's just the kind of thing he does. But back on day 3, when things were really getting fired up in Egypt, and the curfew was imposed, you didn't hear a peep about it on any of the major US networks. I'd like to get full BBC and English Al Jazeera here in the states, simply because as far as news organiztions go they are far better than their American counterparts.
I'm really proud of the Egyptian people, it takes a lot of guts and a lot of anger to do what they're doing, and so far they've kept these protests pretty peaceful. The reports of looters are coupled with reports that the looters are plain clothes policemen, Mubarak supporters, and generally people who are trying to make the revolution look bad. The young men of the communities are banding together to ensure the safety of their neighborhoods, and before commandos took defensive positions at the National Museum they had formed a human wall to try and keep it safe. But for the rest of the world our big question is "what next?" I mean yes, you've overthrown a dictator, congratulations, but who's going to fill the void? Outsiders want a secular government in the region, which is why we supported Mubarak for all those years. The alternative seems to be an Iranian style government, which puts far too much power in the hands of one man, and the West doesn't want the Suez to fall into the hands of that kind of government.
The United States government in particular has supported Mubarak despite his many faults, because an evil friend seems to be preferable to no friend in that part of the world. Egypt has been one of our best allies in our conflicts over there, and we loath losing that. But this isn't about us, this is about the people in Egypt, this is about their rights and their freedom, and not about us fighting people who can barely fight back. On an idealogical level I don't like the fact that we've supported Mubarak for so long, but on a political level I can understand why we did.
I agree with you as far as the way the media is covering it. I believe that pretty much all media around the world is going to have a bias to get what they want out of a situation. The U.S. has been trying to find the countries they can use in the Middle East in order to remain a superpower, which seems to be a dwindling concept lately.
ReplyDeleteThe reason why the western news media aren't taking part of it is because they generally don't want to damage our tiny little virgin minds with heinous acts of real death. Worst case scenarios are that it might push Americans to want to help the people of Egypt and protest for a new government, which will probably end with the government deploying some kind of peace army, because we think they can't possibly handle their own country on their own.
ReplyDeleteAlthough, I know that this isn't the case here. The media has no attentions of showing positive images. I watched the short video on the site; they made it look like a dust bowl full of panicky angry people, when it's actually a beautiful place with people that want change. I hope they get what they want.
I applaud your assertion that this isn't about anything but the basic rights of the Egyptian people. That seems to be something too many people in the media are forgetting in favor of discussing whether Egypt will become a Democracy or not; I don't mean to say that the question of Egypt's future isn't interesting, but there are more ways to look at this than "Will they still be friends with us?"
ReplyDeleteWhat I hope is that we cease meddling in Egypt and other arab nations for our own personal interests (Which is exactly what we did when we installed Mubarak in there. It might have been good for us, but several million angry people in Cairo aren't too pleased.)