Monday, July 11, 2011

Promotion piece for Moroccan King

Look at this puff and promotional piece about the Moroccan King in the New York Times.  This is one of the most serious problems of US media: that (especially when it comes to the Middle East, but this is not exclusively about the Middle East) US media basically follow the orientations of US foreign policies.  If a regime is aligned with the US, it receives far less critical coverage than a regime that is not aligned with the US.  Can you imagine the coverage of Saudi Arabia if Saudi Arabia is not a "strategic partner" (as Jeffrey Feltman described it last week) of the US?  In that case, you would read emotional profiles of the bi-weekly victims of public beheadings in the kingdom of horrors.  Look at this piece and look at the documentation:  "With the pace of democratic change stalled or staggering under violent crackdowns in the Middle East and North Africa, Morocco’s recent decision to alter its Constitution provides what some see as an alternative to the bloody confrontations that have marked the Arab Spring."  Who are the some?  Tell us more about the some, please.