STEREOTYPES STILL MUDDYING THE MEDIA WATERS: American Media Bias

Rami G. Khouri:

 I was in the United States when an Egyptian national popular uprising forced Hosni Mubarak to quit his presidency, and I was in the United States again when Mohammed Morsi was elected as the new Egyptian president. Now, as then, Americans remain unsure about how to react to the popular revolutions that have felled their long-time autocratic Arab allies, who in most cases were replaced by more legitimate, Islamist-led governments.

At the same time though, Americans—who helped define the modern revolutionary and democratic era in the twentieth century—instinctively tend to support national populist revolutions that create government systems based on the consent of the governed and democratic electoral pluralism. When it is Arabs who carry out these revolutionary and democratic endeavors, however, American society reacts with obvious hesitancy alongside the flashes of enthusiasm. It is important for Americans and Arabs alike to understand this phenomenon, because it reflects much deeper perceptions, sentiments, and biases that will continue to haunt relations between Arabs and Americans and prevent them from ever fully embracing one another—or even from developing normal relations. 

I was in the United States when an Egyptian national popular uprising forced Hosni Mubarak to quit his presidency, and I was in the United States again when Mohammed Morsi was elected as the new Egyptian president. Now, as then, Americans remain unsure about how to react to the popular revolutions that have felled their long-time autocratic Arab allies, who in most cases were replaced by more legitimate, Islamist-led governments............

FULL ARTICLE HERE: American Media Bias