CNN Rises to the Top in Egypt Coverage

As mesmerized as I have been by watching the unfolding drama of Egyptian protest, governmental intransigence and repressive violence, I have been mindful of the magnificent work of Anderson Cooper and other CNN reporters. Getting home just before 10, each night I put on CNN; when Lawrence O'Donnell moved to the 8pm slot, my other cable channel lost my vote and my eyes. I do put on msnbc, but it is only for Richard Engel (a great reporter himself).

Photos from Egypt.

Pro-Mubarak forces once again clashed with anti-Mubarak forces on Friday. The brutal set-to didn’t take place in Tahrir Square in Cairo, where as many as 100,000 demonstrators managed to assemble peacefully. The brick-throwing was on cable television, as Fox News and MSNBC anchors continued knocking heads over what’s worse: the dictatorship we know or a democratic rebellion we can’t control.

One of the right wing's great inconsistencies is its insistence on the virtues of democracy: they still insist it was a valid reason for invading Iraq, but they do not insist on its validity in Egypt.

On Wednesday, Thursday and again on Friday, Chris Matthews, the host of “Hardball” on MSNBC, ridiculed Glenn Beck of Fox News for predicting a conspiracy for world domination by a leftist-Islamic “caliphate.” On Friday morning Steve Doocy, a co-host of “Fox and Friends,” showed a clip of Mr. Matthews likening the Muslim Brotherhood to the Tea Party movement and then asked L. Brent Bozell III, a conservative commentator, to explain “how the mainstream media has been playing down the Muslim Brotherhood, which, as I mentioned a moment ago, does have ties to terror.”

Where is it written that that the US decides how other nations conduct their internal affairs?

That was just another skirmish in the cable news culture wars, except that the bickering was woven into one of the most critical — and visually riveting — foreign news events in years. In all the confusion, contradiction and multisource coverage in the 11 days since the Cairo uprising began, viewers of American television have been best served by CNN. The Egyptian crisis has played out live on television minute by minute, hour after hour, in an incongruous clash of the modern and the ancient: the opponents fought with stones and on horse and camel, while the watching world looks on via satellite, Skype, Twitter and flip phone. The uprising against President Hosni Mubarak is as compelling to watch as it is hard to parse; even more than with most major news, it helps to have a reliable narrator.

Cooper has been stellar.

The ABC anchor Diane Sawyer stayed in New York and let Ms. Amanpour do what she does best. The NBC anchor Brian Williams had rushed to Cairo, followed by Katie Couric of CBS. They worked hard, but in that volatile setting, the network anchors didn’t have much to do; the best reporting was provided by well-connected veterans like Richard Engel on NBC and Lara Logan of CBS. After pro-Mubarak mobs began going after journalists — Ms. Couric was jostled while trying to report live on Wednesday from Tahrir Square — she and Mr. Williams left the country, quite wisely. On Friday Ms. Couric and Mr. Williams were both back in New York.

Where they belong, and will do least harm.


It’s an unfinished and changing story, but from the beginning, the Cairo uprising gave hundreds of thousands of unprivileged, unheeded Egyptians a voice. So it’s fitting that covering it is giving less eminent but experienced CNN correspondents like Ben Wedeman and Arwa Damon a chance to have their say as well.

Uprising in Egypt Splits U.S Conservatives

I'm not sure if this item belongs in Geopolitics, Politics, Comedy, or psychiatry. Glenn Beck blasts the uprising in Cairo as a threat to our way of life. Michelle Goldberg on how the rebellion is splitting U.S. conservatives—and the fallout for the 2012 presidential campaign.

His logic is, to say the least, interesting; it would be alarming if it weren't so pathetic: "We've shown you tonight that Hamas, Code Pink"—the feminist anti-war group—"and the Muslim Brotherhood are all linked together." With the future bleak, Beck called on his viewers to pray for "our way of life" and for Israel.

And he has more to say.


"This is Saul Alinsky. This is STORM from Van Jones," he warned on Monday, continuing, "The former Soviet Union, everybody, radical Islam, every—this is the story of everyone who has ever plotted to or wanted to fundamentally change or destroy the Western way of life. This isn't about Egypt. Everything is up on the table." It would all end, he warned, with the restoration of a "Muslim caliphate that controls the Mideast and parts of Europe," along with an expanded China and Russian control of the entire Soviet Union "plus maybe the Netherlands."

And he ain't alone: On Sean Hannity's radio show, Newt Gingrich warned that Egypt "could go the way of Iran."

Now, there is some incisive analysis.

‘Skins,’ Sex and Foreign Affairs

On Monday’s episode of  MTV could show minors in the kind of flagrante delicto that is usually reserved for mature audiences. Yet most adult Americans still can’t watch Al Jazeera English on television — even now, when the world is transfixed by images of Egypt in revolt. It seems like a perverse application of free speech. But sex is sexier than foreign affairs and it certainly sells better. Freedom of expression is guaranteed to all Americans, but mostly it follows the money.

Brings to mind that line by H.L. Mencken: "No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public." [That seems moreaccurate than: “Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public.”]

The English-language version is more cosmopolitan, offering a non-Western view of world events that is instructive, if not always persuasive. Al Jazeera English is available in more than 100 countries, including Canada, but it is almost totally invisible in the United States — except on cable providers in Burlington, Vt.; Toledo, Ohio; and Washington.

What ever happpened to the assertion that most people get their news through the Internet?

To be fair, Al Jazeera English may be providing the most up-close and personal coverage round-the-clock, but it isn’t necessarily the best. And “Skins” isn’t the worst series for young people on cable, not by far. That would be “Jersey Shore.”

The little I see of that latter show makes me wonder just why it is so poular. To wit: “Jersey Shore” is popular mostly because it is a reality show that works like a cartoon. The stars are self-parodying characters who misbehave outlandishly — without comeuppance or scary consequences. Like Daffy Duck, who can dodge hunters’ bullets and swallow nitroglycerin, characters like Snooki can curse, get drunk, have promiscuous sex and buy a stripper pole, and never get seriously hurt.