{"id":308653,"date":"2017-05-17T23:48:40","date_gmt":"2017-05-17T22:48:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/media-to-trump-dont-cozy-up-to-dictators-unless-theyre-the-right-dictators\/"},"modified":"2017-05-17T23:48:40","modified_gmt":"2017-05-17T22:48:40","slug":"media-to-trump-dont-cozy-up-to-dictators-unless-theyre-the-right-dictators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/media-to-trump-dont-cozy-up-to-dictators-unless-theyre-the-right-dictators\/","title":{"rendered":"Media to Trump: Don\u2019t Cozy Up to Dictators\u2013Unless They\u2019re the Right Dictators"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"New<\/a><\/p>\n

The New York Times<\/strong>\u00a0(5\/1\/17<\/a>) is critical when Trump embraces a despot not on the Approved Despots List.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

After a series of friendly gestures by President Donald Trump toward Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte and Egypt\u2019s Abdel Fattah el-Sisi over the past few months, US media have recoiled with disgust at the open embrace of governments that ostensibly had heretofore been beyond the pale.<\/p>\n

\u201cEnabling Egypt\u2019s President Sisi, an Enemy of Human Rights,\u201d was the New York Times<\/b>\u2018 editorial position (4\/4\/17<\/a>)\u2014followed by \u201cDonald Trump Embraces Another Despot\u201d (5\/1\/17<\/a>). A week later, Sen. John McCain (R.-Ariz.) lectured Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on the Times<\/b> op-ed page (5\/8\/17<\/a>) on \u201cWhy We Must Support Human Rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow Trump Makes Dictators Stronger\u201d was Washington Post<\/b> columnist Anne Applebaum\u2019s lament (5\/1\/17<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump keeps praising international strongmen, alarming human rights advocates,\u201d reported an upset Philip Rucker (Washington Post<\/b>, 5\/2\/17<\/a>). Post <\/b>contributor Tom Toles (5\/2\/17<\/a>) added, \u201cTrump invites ruthless dictators to the White House.\u201d Trump had gone too far, was the media message, crossing a line with his enthusiastic outreach to brutal tyrants.<\/p>\n

So the Trump administration\u2019s announcement of a plan for not just a friendly visit to Saudi Arabia\u2014scheduled for May 20\u201321\u2014but also the sale of up to $300 billion in weapons<\/a> to the oppressive regime, must have provoked the same outcry from these critics, right?<\/p>\n

Actually, no. Thus far, the LA Times<\/b>, CNN<\/b>, NBC<\/b>, MSNBC<\/b>, CNN<\/b>, ABC<\/b> and CBS<\/b> haven\u2019t reported on Trump\u2019s massive arms deal with Saudi Arabia, much less had a pundit or editorial board condemn it.<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia\u2019s war on Yemen has killed at least 10,000 civilians<\/a>, resulted in near-famine conditions<\/a> for 7 million people and led to a deadly cholera epidemic<\/a>\u2014all made possible with US weapons and logistical support<\/a>.<\/p>\n

John McCain<\/a>, whose New York Times <\/b>op-ed was unironically shared<\/a> by dozens of high-status pundits, aggressively backs<\/a> Saudi Arabia\u2019s brutal bombing of Yemen, and has called for increased military support to the absolute monarchy.<\/p>\n

\"New<\/a><\/p>\n

When Obama acted to protect Saudi despots, the New York Times<\/strong> (9\/28\/16<\/a>) endorsed his support for a “difficult ally.”<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The New York Times<\/b> hasn\u2019t written an editorial about Saudi Arabia since October of last year (10\/1\/16<\/a>), when, for the second time<\/a> in the span of a week, the paper defended the regime against potential lawsuits over its role in the 9\/11 attacks. When the Times<\/b> does speak out on the topic of Saudi Arabia, it does so to run interference for its possible connection to international terrorism.<\/p>\n

Nice words to the wrong dictators unleash a torrent of outrage from our pundit class. Nice words to the right dictators\u2014along with billions in military hardware, which unlike nice words will be used to continue to slaughter residents of a neighboring country<\/a> and suppress domestic dissent\u2013result in uniform silence. Not a word from Anne Applebaum, no condemnation from Philip Rucker, no moral preening from Sen. John McCain, no sense that any line had been crossed from the New York Times<\/b> editorial board. The US\u2019s warm embrace and arming of the Saudis is factored in, it\u2019s bipartisan, and thus not worthy of outrage.<\/p>\n

While the New York Times<\/b>\u2019 news pages did note the $100 billion\u2013$300 billion Saudi weapons sale, they did so in passing, in paragraph six of a broader article about Trump\u2019s Middle East trip (5\/15\/17<\/a>)\u2014though to his credit, reporter Nick Cumming-Bruce did note:<\/p>\n

\n

criticism that the United States is supporting Saudi military operations that have struck hospitals, schools, markets and mosques and inflicted thousands of civilian casualties.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The Washington Post<\/b> (5\/17\/17<\/a>) reported on the arms deal in paragraph 12 of a story about Trump attempting to create an \u201cArab NATO.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"WaPo:<\/a><\/p>\n

Jackson Diehl’s suggestion (Washington Post<\/strong>, 5\/14\/17<\/a>) for “how Trump could lead on human rights” is that he should focus mostly on US citizens’ rights.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The Post\u2019s <\/b>reporting on Saudi Arabia in the run-up to Trump\u2019s visit echoed the \u201creformist\u201d narrative advanced by Post <\/b>columnist David Ignatius (FAIR.org<\/b>, 4\/28\/17<\/a>). \u201cIt seems promising,\u201d Cairo bureau chief Sudarsan Raghavan (5\/12\/17<\/a>) wrote of the Saudi King\u2019s \u201ccalls\u201d for \u201creform.\u201d<\/p>\n

Editorial page editor Jackson Diehl (5\/14\/17<\/a>) even suggested in earnest that Trump could \u201clead on human rights,\u201d finishing off his sheepish, somewhat self-aware headline with \u201cReally.\u201d In the piece, \u201chuman rights\u201d is used as a placeholder for getting US citizens out of foreign prisons\u2014a perfectly fine suggestion, but more about US rights than human ones. And, like the Post<\/b>\u2019s editorial board and the rest of the opinion section, Diehl\u2019s musing on the topic of human rights entirely omitted Trump\u2019s cozying up to Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t to say that major US media shouldn\u2019t note when US leaders glad-hand despotic governments\u2014they certainly should. But their almost uniform silence on Trump\u2019s ramping up ties with one of the world\u2019s worst human rights offenders, and the material, physical act of selling them munitions to use on Yemeni civilians, speaks to the arbitrary and self-serving nature of US media\u2019s moral posture.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/span>
\nThis piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission from FAIR<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The New York Times\u00a0(5\/1\/17) is critical when Trump embraces a despot not on the Approved Despots List. After a series of friendly gestures by President Donald Trump toward Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte and Egypt\u2019s Abdel Fattah el-Sisi over the past few months, US media have recoiled with disgust at the open embrace of governments that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2521,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-308653","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2521"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308653\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}