Blame Media: Washington Faces Inevitable Predicament in Egypt
The Egyptian government demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of how the US press operates.
In a Sept. 24 interview with the pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat, Egypt's interim foreign minister, Nabil Fahmy, stated that Cairo's relations with Washington have become “turbulent” and that the Egyptian public has adopted an unprecedented negative perception of the United States. One of the most significant factors contributing to the deterioration of relations between Cairo and Washington is the difference between Egyptian and American media coverage.
The minute the military ousted President Mohammed Morsi on July 3, Egyptian state and independent media went on the offensive with three themes: the Muslim Brotherhood and Morsi’s poor record in office; the pro-Brotherhood bias of the Obama administration and the US media; and the supposed relationship between the two. Indeed, it became increasingly difficult not to find a daily story detailing the “intimate” relationship between the Obama administration and the Muslim Brotherhood.
