It has been depressing this week to watch mainstream American television networks cover Yemen and wider issues related to tensions and terrorism in our region. It is depressing because, with very few exceptions, the media that provide a majority of Americans with their news and views of world events is covering the Yemen story with a shocking combination of amateurism, ideological distortion, and selectivity.
If media are a mirror of the political system in the United States – and I believe they are – then it is no wonder that the past two decades have seen a steady expansion of two related and symbiotic problems: the spread of terrorism in and from the Arab-Asian region; and the spread of the American armed forces and covert operations in the same region.
Journalists may no longer enter the Pentagon’s press office, which has been designated as a classified...
