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Why Aren't Western and Arab Media in Syria?

(Weekly Standard) Lee Smith - It's not on the front pages of the Western press, and it's not leading the hour for the main Arab satellite networks like Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya, but the Syrian uprising continues apace. People are in the streets of every major Syrian city except Aleppo, but there's been little attention paid to it. The same Western and Arab media that covered the Egyptian uprising is all but absent from Syria. The Assad regime has done an excellent job of keeping the curtains closed on events. Al-Jazeera, which has been exceptionally silent on Syria, perhaps because of the good alliance between Assad and Al-Jazeera's owner, the Sheikh of Qatar, cherry-picked its coverage of Syrian rallies. To go after Bashar Assad means reversing years of Al-Jazeera coverage sympathetic to the Syrian leader. So the Syrians find their struggle not enjoying the customary Al-Jazeera treatment - high in emotion and electric in the slogans of mobilization.
2011-04-11 00:00:00
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