Monday, February 7
This is somehow so... not surprising.
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/0,,SB110722779399442034-INjfYNglaJ4npuqZoKGcaeDm5,00.html

Europe's Left in Denial

highlights:

The same bias runs through much of Europe's media. According to a common narrative, nothing good could possibly come out of this "illegitimate" war. But that their ideological zeal to uncritically condemn American policy surpasses that of Arab media surely should be cause for some introspection.

Media-Tenor, a media analysis center headquartered in Bonn, Germany, studied the Iraq election coverage of 41 main European media outlets in Germany, France, the U.K., Spain and Italy between Jan. 17 and Jan. 26. The analysis compared this with 12 leading Arab TV stations and newspapers. Specifically, the researchers looked at how the journalists presented the legitimacy of the elections. The results "even stunned our Arab researchers," Markus Rettich, director of political studies at Media Tenor, told us.
"European media portray a dramatic picture ahead of the elections in Iraq. The legitimacy of the election is strongly questioned. Almost no positive Iraqi sources are quoted," Media Tenor writes.
The Arab media, on the other hand, "make significantly fewer skeptical statements regarding the legitimacy of the elections in Iraq. In contrast to the Europeans, the Arab coverage quotes more Iraqi sources. As far as legitimacy is concerned, Al Jazeera & Co. seem to be reporting about a different election," Media Tenor concludes.

"The media present the German public with a situation in Iraq that is twice as negatively portrayed as the one under Saddam Hussein's dictatorship."

Then as now some are still in denial. "Americans are stupid," was Europe's verdict as the results came in Nov. 2. Surely there must be an equally facile answer to why Iraqis risked their lives to vote. Given a little time, someone in Europe will come up with it.

God, CNN would be proud.
 
posted by Jessica at 4:29 PM | Permalink |