Western media, the Middle East & Egypt, and context

[allperils]

Yes, it's been fascinating to see (after a return to North America after 10 years of living in Taipei) how Americans and Canadians view China: either as a grave threat or some sort of economic beacon. You see media people all the time here who blather on about the place without two clues about its history or cultural composition. Sure, they've got lots of economic stats to rattle off, but nothing insightful.

But it's the same with other foreign topics. I watched the CBC (the Canadian equivalent of the BBC) for days re coverage of those protests in Cairo. They were so focussed on the power of Twitter that they failed to talk about (or at least I didn't notice) who Mubarak was - how he had come to power, what he had done, exactly how he and his regime were corrupt, etc., etc. Instead of interviewing experts, they mainly spoke to Canadian Egytians on the ground who said things like: 'I Twittered my friends to tell them to meet me at the square. We all hope Mubarak leaves soon.' Yes, we heard that already. Now, can we have some background? Some context?

Egypt's Mubarak is a US backed dictator...of course the CBC won't talk about that. The CBC also doesn't talk about how the US is the one behind the problems in Syria. Or how they wish to first overthrow Syria then Iran.

Nor do they mention the presence of Russian Federation Ships off Syria's coast to guard against a Libya 2.0

[headhonchoII]

So that's why the Arab League have placed monitors in Syria and many of them support sanctions against Syria. The Arab League, great friends of the US.
The US doesn't want to get involved in a full scale war which is what could happen with civil war breaking out between ethnic groups in Syria.

[Gman]

But it's the same with other foreign topics. I watched the CBC (the Canadian equivalent of the BBC) for days re coverage of those protests in Cairo. They were so focussed on the power of Twitter that they failed to talk about (or at least I didn't notice) who Mubarak was - how he had come to power, what he had done, exactly how he and his regime were corrupt, etc., etc.

Egypt's Mubarak is a US backed dictator...of course the CBC won't talk about that. The CBC also doesn't talk about how the US is the one behind the problems in Syria. Or how they wish to first overthrow Syria then Iran.

Nor do they mention the presence of Russian Federation Ships off Syria's coast to guard against a Libya 2.0

The CBC and other western news organizations have mentioned US backing of Mubarak plenty of times if this is news to you then you haven't been paying attention to the issue until events have become sensational. While you can criticizice CBC all you want, if the news story was a typical current events piece on the uprising and the role of social media why would they need to preamble that with a history of Mubarak's regime?

Surely you don't expect a news story about an autoworker's strike in Detroit led with a 2 hour presentation on the invention of the wheel, the invention of the internal combustion engine, Ford's innovation of the assembly line, and the organization of labour just to report that talks have broken down and the workers will strike at midnight?

I also think you'd be hard pressed to defend the idea that the CBC is somehow trying to supress knowledge that Mubarak had US backing. In fact it's been widely reported by Western media for ages. I suppose you'd consider a Muslim Theocracy in Egypt as more desirable? This idea that there are Russian and US interests involved in Syria has also been talked about on the CBC and other western media outlets. In fact it's been pretty much brought down to common knowledge.

I think you either need to take off the tin foil hat or understand that expecting a 10-20 minute news piece on a current event is going to provide a comprehensive knowledge base on an issue is a bit of a stretch. I actually find some of the documentries on the CBC to be quite well done as much as I dislike publicly funded media. If you really wanted to see a piece that covered Syria or Egypt and ALL the political, social, and historical issues that have led up to current events along with coverage of every other interest in those countries you would probably need about a 6 hour documentry.

[Got To Be Kidding]

But it's the same with other foreign topics. I watched the CBC (the Canadian equivalent of the BBC) for days re coverage of those protests in Cairo. They were so focussed on the power of Twitter that they failed to talk about (or at least I didn't notice) who Mubarak was - how he had come to power, what he had done, exactly how he and his regime were corrupt, etc., etc.

Egypt's Mubarak is a US backed dictator...of course the CBC won't talk about that. The CBC also doesn't talk about how the US is the one behind the problems in Syria. Or how they wish to first overthrow Syria then Iran.

Nor do they mention the presence of Russian Federation Ships off Syria's coast to guard against a Libya 2.0

The CBC and other western news organizations have mentioned US backing of Mubarak plenty of times if this is news to you then you haven't been paying attention to the issue until events have become sensational. While you can criticizice CBC all you want, if the news story was a typical current events piece on the uprising and the role of social media why would they need to preamble that with a history of Mubarak's regime?

Surely you don't expect a news story about an autoworker's strike in Detroit led with a 2 hour presentation on the invention of the wheel, the invention of the internal combustion engine, Ford's innovation of the assembly line, and the organization of labour just to report that talks have broken down and the workers will strike at midnight?

I also think you'd be hard pressed to defend the idea that the CBC is somehow trying to supress knowledge that Mubarak had US backing. In fact it's been widely reported by Western media for ages. I suppose you'd consider a Muslim Theocracy in Egypt as more desirable? This idea that there are Russian and US interests involved in Syria has also been talked about on the CBC and other western media outlets. In fact it's been pretty much brought down to common knowledge.

I think you either need to take off the tin foil hat or understand that expecting a 10-20 minute news piece on a current event is going to provide a comprehensive knowledge base on an issue is a bit of a stretch. I actually find some of the documentries on the CBC to be quite well done as much as I dislike publicly funded media. If you really wanted to see a piece that covered Syria or Egypt and ALL the political, social, and historical issues that have led up to current events along with coverage of every other interest in those countries you would probably need about a 6 hour documentry.

Actually, six hours would only cover the INTRODUCTION.