There is a great example of the general bias of The New York Times in today’s edition.
Saudi Arabia is flexing its financial and diplomatic might across the Middle East in a wide-ranging bid to contain the tide of change, shield fellow monarchs from popular discontent and avert the overthrow of any more leaders struggling to calm turbulent republics.
From Egypt, where the Saudis dispensed $4 billion in aid last week to shore up the ruling military council, to Yemen, where it is trying to ease out the president, to the kingdoms of Jordan and Morocco, which it has invited to join a union of Gulf monarchies, Saudi Arabia is scrambling to forestall more radical change and block Iran’s influence.
The kingdom is aggressively emphasizing the relative stability of monarchies, part of an effort to avert any dramatic shift from the authoritarian model, which would generate uncomfortable questions about the glacial pace of political and social change at home.
You can swap the words “Saudi Arabia” for the words “United States” and read the article we should have read at the very beginning of the Arab Spring. The U.S. has flexed its financial and diplomatic might in a desperate attempt to avert any shift from the authoritarian model they’ve maintained in the region for decades. In Yemen, in Bahrain, in Jordan, in Palestine, in Egypt (before Mubarak’s ousting was successful), and elsewhere, the U.S. has made significant efforts to ensure democracy is suppressed and tyranny persists. This is well known, but the mainstream media often suffers from an inability to scrutinize – or honestly report – the policies of America the way they do for other countries.
