Anti-government mass uprising? What anti-government mass uprising?
Steve Watson | PrisonPlanet | 31 January 2011:
While the ailing dictatorship government in Egypt is busy rounding up and arresting Al Jazeera journalists in an attempt to control the release of footage and accounts of the mass uprising going on throughout the entirety of the country, the disgraceful corporate American media has once again shown itself to be just as strictly regulated in terms of the content it provides to viewers.
In Britain and Canada anyone interested in following the mass unrest in Egypt can simply turn on the television and tune into the English version of Al Jazeera, which has round the clock reports and uninterrupted live footage from journalists on the ground in Cairo and around the rest of the country.
The channel has been running and offering its content worldwide since 2006, yet unless you live in certain parts of Ohio, Vermont or Washington, D.C., you cannot even access the channel in the US, because the cable carriers are not interested in allowing you to see it.
Occasionally, if you are lucky, Fox News, CNN or MSNBC might break away from reporting on some mindless fluff to show you a short loop of some footage that appeared on Al Jazeera English a few hours previously.
This corporate censorship has resulted in a two-and-a-half thousand percent increase in web traffic to Al Jazeera’s website, where it is broadcasting a live stream.
This is the only place in America that you will see continuous live footage from Egypt – an utter disgrace, but no surprise whatsoever, given that the major US networks are all wholly or part owned by mega corporations comprising the military industrial complex.
As noted by Salon.com, during the time that President Hosni Mubarak’s ruling party headquarters was torched and set on fire, Al Jazeera had a live feed and an opposition party leader on the phone responding to the events. Meanwhile, Fox News waited to conclude an in depth feature on anchor babies, and then switched to an interview with John Bolton, who said words to the effect of “those darn muslims are up to no good again”.
“A bit earlier, Al Jazeera reported on what could be live ammunition fired by police outside the heavily guarded radio and television building. And Fox went live to Chicago, where two men tried to rob a Brink’s truck.” notes Alex Pareene.
MSNBC went one better by conducting an interview with Dan Senor of The Council on Foreign Relations live from a luxury elite hideout in Davos. There’s some straight up unbiased geopolitical analysis for you.
Any other reporting on Egypt that airs on US cable news consists of repeating loops of the same few minutes of footage with similar paid for and owned “analysis” slapped over the top.
Of course, in the past when Al Jazeera has covered the Iraq and Afghanistan wars a little too in depth for the liking of the US government, it has become the target of US bombs.
In the absence of having any actual facts, the written media has remarkably decided to defend the dictatorship in Egypt, with The LA Times noting that “Egypt and its President Hosni Mubarak are strong US allies in a region rife with anti-Americanism” and the New York Times adding that “the downfall of Mubarak could pave the way for Islamist radicals eager to increase their clout in Egypt”.
Once again, the “free press” at is hard at work keeping Americans in the dark.
Related video: Alex Jones: Corporations, US Government Run News Media
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2011-01-31
Corporate US Media’s Woeful, Sanitized Egypt Coverage Amounts To Censorship | Philip Brennan
