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Leopolds Ghost

(12,875 posts)
Sat Jun 7, 2014, 02:07 PM Jun 2014

Al-Jazeera has sullied themselves by calling Morsi's ouster a coup (says Wash Post)

Washington Post: No one can defend calling it a coup, and it is a violation of journalistic principles to do so, showing support for terrorists.

This is along the lines of the sort of "media criticism" Howard Kurtz was paid to do in order to blacklist Dan Rather. --LG

I found this gem in a back issue:

The splash page headline shows the AL JAZEERA title behind prison bars that cover the entire first page of the STYLE section.

The article appears to be written primarily based on reporting from Yigal Carmon from an outfit called Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) which normally calls attention racism and anti-semitism in the Egyptian media. The purpose of the article appears to be an attempt to discredit Al-Jazeera Egypt as a mouthpiece for terrorists, for showing sympathy to the "terrorist" Muslim Brotherhood and having the temerity to call the current military regime a coup.
[div]

[div style="margin-left:5px;font-size:3em;font-family:'New York','Times New Roman',serif"]AL JAZEERA

[div style="position:absolute;margin-top:-8em;margin-left:-2em;width:610px;height:12em;overflow:hidden"]
[div style="padding:5px;background:white;opacity:1;width:32em;margin-top:-7em;margin-left:1em"]Observers may criticize Egypt's arrest of its [font color="red"]journalists.[/font]

But few are defending the network's [font color="red"]journalism.[/font]


dun dun dun!!!! --LG

[div style="font-size:1.3em;font-family:'New York','Times New Roman',serif"]Critics accuse network of supporting Morsi
By Paul Farhi, Jan 6, 2014
Washington Post


Ever since the military's ouster of Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi in July, Al Jazeera, the pioneering Arab-language news broadcaster, hasn't shrunk from calling his removal something the American government won't: a coup. That highly loaded declaration, as well as its relentless and, critics say, sympathetic coverage of Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood movement, has turned Al Jazeera into a virtual enemy of the state in Egypt. Its journalists have been harassed and banned... Al-Jazeera's local TV studios (have) been shut down... The network's pariah status in Egypt represents an abrupt reversal of fortune for a news organization often lionized for challenging the media monopoly of authoritarian governments. (snip)

Since then, Egyptian authorities and Al Jazeera's critics -- including some of the network's own employees -- have accused it of being a mouthpiece for Morsi and the now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. "Al-Jazeera has given a lot of support to the Muslim Brotherhood. There's no doubt about that," said Hugh Miles, a freelance journalist in Cairo and the author of "Al Jazeera: The Inside Story of the Arab News Channel that is Challenging the West."

[div style="font-size:1.3em;font-family:'New York','Times New Roman',serif;overflow:visible"]Al Jazeera "is talking with a forked tongue in two languages."[font size="1"]Yigal Carmon, MEMRI[/font]

The network "regularly" exaggerates the strength of pro-Brotherhood protests by zooming in on small crowds to make them appear larger, said Yigal Carmon, president of the Middle East Research Institute (MEMRI), a Washington-based organization that tracks Arabic media and describes itself as nonpartisan. "They attack the military in every way possible and defend the Muslim Brotherhood in every possible way."

Qatar's influence

More broadly, Al Jazeera has for years battled criticism that it is a tool of its patron, the tiny, gas-rich Persian Gulf state of Qatar. Qatar's emir, the royal head of state, has bankrolled the network since its inception in 1996 and recently funded its expansion in the United States via a new domestic news network ... American diplomats privately grumbled about Qatar's influence over Doha-based Al Jazeera in cables that were disclosed in 2010 by WikiLeaks. Although the Qatari government has openly supported the Muslim Brotherhood and pledged funds to Morsi's government, Al Jazeera maintains that there is no connection and that it is fully independent.

[div style="max-width:80px;height:85px;overflow:hidden"][div style="width:250px;margin-left:-170px;margin-top:-84px"]I am shocked, shocked.jpg

That's not how it looks to a number of Western observers, however. El-Nawawy ... contends that the network "has adopted a very clear-cut line" since Morsi was removed from power. "Its premise has been that this (Morsi's government) was a democratically elected regime and that the military should not intervene. When you have a country that is so polarized along ideological lines, that side is very controversial."

Focus on protesters

But rather than present all sides of the story, much of the coverage on Al Jazeera's two Egypt-only satellite channels these days is devoted to anti-government demonstrations, Miles said. ... In addition, the channels have aired many interviews with survivors of the Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque massacre in July in which hundreds of Brotherhood supporters were killed by government troops. "It definitely makes them different from all the other channels," Miles said, somewhat wryly.

Note, this was written 6 months after the non-coup. Here's the image accompanying both headlines:

[div style="width:550px"]
[font size="1"]Supporters of Egyptian Gen. Abdel Fatah al-Sissi rally at Tahrir Square in Cairo on July 26. (via Washington Post)[/font]

Excerpts from Washington Post interview with Egyptian Gen. Abdel Fatah al-Sissi (Article #2)

The following are excerpts from Washington Post senior associate editor Lally Weymouth’s Aug. 1 interview with Gen. Abdel Fatah al-Sissi, Egypt’s defense minister, armed forces commander and deputy prime minister. (The article begins)

Sissi: The Egyptian military does not make coup d’états. The last coup was in the fifties. There is a very special relationship that binds the Egyptians and their military. The dilemma between the former president and the people originated from the ideology that the Muslim Brotherhood adopted for building a country ... That’s what made him (Morsi) not a president for all Egyptians.

Weymouth: When did that become obvious to you?
23 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Al-Jazeera has sullied themselves by calling Morsi's ouster a coup (says Wash Post) (Original Post) Leopolds Ghost Jun 2014 OP
Since when was a coup "the military ousting a legitimate government"? Warren Stupidity Jun 2014 #1
Bwaaaaaaaah hahahahahha malaise Jun 2014 #7
The creatures outside looked from pig to man, but already it was impossible to say which was which. Leopolds Ghost Jun 2014 #2
How positively Orwellian. Comrade Grumpy Jun 2014 #3
So, um, yeah. Leopolds Ghost Jun 2014 #4
Perhaps we should give equal time to people who say every military regime is a coup. Leopolds Ghost Jun 2014 #5
Is there some point you're trying to make? Because I'm not getting it. Comrade Grumpy Jun 2014 #9
I'm being facetious. Leopolds Ghost Jun 2014 #11
To be precise Leopolds Ghost Jun 2014 #20
If that wasn't a coup, then there never has been one. nt kelliekat44 Jun 2014 #6
Those nefarious Qataris Leopolds Ghost Jun 2014 #8
Except for our military bases there. Leopolds Ghost Jun 2014 #13
Call it whatever you want seveneyes Jun 2014 #10
So you would advocate a military coup Leopolds Ghost Jun 2014 #12
Back to your regularly scheduled programming, I guess Leopolds Ghost Jun 2014 #14
Actually, unscheduled programming seveneyes Jun 2014 #15
I believe in separation of church and state, not laicism Leopolds Ghost Jun 2014 #19
Perhaps you do not know Distant Quasar Jun 2014 #16
Once the religious brainwashing is outnumbered, the nonsense will end seveneyes Jun 2014 #17
Two points: 1) the Egyptian "secular military" government is also religiously chauvinist Leopolds Ghost Jun 2014 #18
The US can't call it a coup because that means instant defunding. joshcryer Jun 2014 #21
That doesn't mean the media has to follow suit though. :P Leopolds Ghost Jun 2014 #22
Hey there! NYC_SKP Sep 2014 #23

Leopolds Ghost

(12,875 posts)
2. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, but already it was impossible to say which was which.
Sat Jun 7, 2014, 02:31 PM
Jun 2014

The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.

[div style="width: 90px"]

Leopolds Ghost

(12,875 posts)
4. So, um, yeah.
Sat Jun 7, 2014, 02:44 PM
Jun 2014

How about those Redskins? And Kanye West? Didn't a bunch of media and business leaders say we should model ourselves more on China and Singapore anyway. Democracy isn't all it's cracked up to be, as Egypt shows...

Leopolds Ghost

(12,875 posts)
5. Perhaps we should give equal time to people who say every military regime is a coup.
Sat Jun 7, 2014, 02:49 PM
Jun 2014

Where would we be if we did that? Hmmmm?

Leopolds Ghost

(12,875 posts)
11. I'm being facetious.
Sat Jun 7, 2014, 03:55 PM
Jun 2014


Apparently on DU, you have to clarify which side you are on when it comes to supporting military coups.

Leopolds Ghost

(12,875 posts)
13. Except for our military bases there.
Sat Jun 7, 2014, 04:08 PM
Jun 2014

And supporting Qatar's own efforts to suppress Arab Spring dissent.

All in all, it's a good thing the US supports Qatar's opposition to democracy at home, but opposes their support for democracy abroad.

 

seveneyes

(4,631 posts)
10. Call it whatever you want
Sat Jun 7, 2014, 03:42 PM
Jun 2014

Anytime you can ouster a radical religious leadership, it is a good thing. Playing semantics while your leaders oppress you with their religious dogma does little to help eliminate the scourge.

Leopolds Ghost

(12,875 posts)
12. So you would advocate a military coup
Sat Jun 7, 2014, 03:56 PM
Jun 2014

If a right wing (or left wing) religious fundamentalist is elected in the US, because oppression with ideas is bad, but not oppression in general, right?

Call me next time a Republican wins.

 

seveneyes

(4,631 posts)
15. Actually, unscheduled programming
Sat Jun 7, 2014, 04:24 PM
Jun 2014

But that's the price of being on call. But no, not much to add except any religious dogma should be overthrown.

Leopolds Ghost

(12,875 posts)
19. I believe in separation of church and state, not laicism
Sat Jun 7, 2014, 06:51 PM
Jun 2014

laïcism (as in clergy vs laity) = enforced secularism, e.g. the belief that the state needs to protect itself from religious people having a say or winning elections

Distant Quasar

(142 posts)
16. Perhaps you do not know
Sat Jun 7, 2014, 05:38 PM
Jun 2014

that Egypt's military rulers - from Nasser and Sadat up through Mubarak and now al-Sisi - have done everything in their power to make sure that "radical" religious leadership is the only alternative to their rule. Sure enough, al-Sisi has cracked down on secular liberal critics at the same time that he is crushing the Brotherhood. It's the same playbook Egypt's dictators have been following for 60 years.

The Egyptian "state within a state" is not part of the solution; it is a central reason why a secular democratic movement has never been able to coalesce in that country. For secularists to cheer on its continuous manipulation and intervention in Egyptian politics is deeply misguided.

 

seveneyes

(4,631 posts)
17. Once the religious brainwashing is outnumbered, the nonsense will end
Sat Jun 7, 2014, 06:01 PM
Jun 2014

Youth should be protected from religious dogma.

Leopolds Ghost

(12,875 posts)
18. Two points: 1) the Egyptian "secular military" government is also religiously chauvinist
Sat Jun 7, 2014, 06:50 PM
Jun 2014

Its "liberal, secular" supporters have chauvinistic, anti-freedom of religion attitudes about both religion and democracy.

Basically, they believe that democracy only works if people you believe in win.

Just in a different way (and I'm talking about the "liberal, secular" Egyptians who still hate Israel and support violence against people with differing religious beliefs, such as Muslim Brotherhood members and they are against atheists too for that matter)

2) The notion that religion is to blame for all the evils of the world (including military dictatorships killing religious people) is pretty silly

joshcryer

(62,265 posts)
21. The US can't call it a coup because that means instant defunding.
Sat Jun 7, 2014, 09:45 PM
Jun 2014

And the US is more afraid of a weakened Egyptian military than it is supportive of the junta.

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