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American Media’s Coverage Of The Middle East
February 7, 2011 · Mustapha Hamoui
more often than not we have little or no context for what we’re watching. That’s the legacy of years of self-censored, superficial, provincial and at times Islamophobic coverage of the Arab world in a large swath of American news media. Even now we’re more likely to hear speculation about how many cents per gallon the day’s events might cost at the pump than to get an intimate look at the demonstrators’ lives.
In my opinion, the problem is also partly one of attention span. The Middle East is a very complicated place, and no matter how much you try you just can’t just summarize what’s happening there in fast punchlines in the evening news.
Serious TV journalism, the kind where reporters explore in depth important issues, does exist in the US, and here I give a special mention to Jim Lehrer’s News Hour on CBS. People can also tune in to foreign stations like BBC World and soon hopefully, Aljazeera English.
The question that really matters is: Do Americans care enough or have enough time to dedicate hours of “education” on TV ?