Foreigners/Foreign Media Inciting Egyptian Chaos?

LibocalypseNow

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Jul 30, 2009
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Is Mubarak right in claiming Foreigners and especially the Foreign Press are interfering and inciting chaos in Egypt? Our Government has certainly been involved with interfering so that's a given in my opinion. I was also just watching CNN and i saw Anderson Cooper openly & blatantly taking the side of the Protesters. I thought that was pretty disturbing. I've seen the same tone coming from the BBC as well. So if they're not interfering or inciting,why are they choosing sides in this conflict? I lost alot of respect for Anderson Cooper. Credible journalists should not behave that way. So are Mubarak's claims correct? I'm interested in hearing what you all think. Thanks.
 
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CNN & BBC have clearly taken a hard-line Anti-Mubarak/Pro-Protester stance. Should an American Media Outlet such as CNN be taking sides like this? Isn't that Foreign interfering & inciting?
 
CNN & BBC have clearly taken a hard-line Anti-Mubarak/Pro-Protester stance. Should an American Media Outlet such as CNN be taking sides like this? Isn't that Foreign interfering & inciting?

The Net was off in Egypt, (but now is back on), and the troops have moved in to police the demonstrators calling for regime change. Many companies outside Egypt have taken part in an effort to help--with news-spreading services inside the nation and information sharing services outside the shuttered nation. But, with some question over whether their help is welcome, needed or, in fact, helpful, should these firms really be banging their drum so hard? Altruism is veering into the realm of opportunism.

Last week's hundreds of thousands of protesters on the streets of Egypt's cities were expected by many to swell to numbering almost a million today--and this is despite the Egyptian government's crackdown on 21st century technology. Last week all but one ISP was shut down--now that one's been shuttered. Cell phone grids are being turned off today, and the trains are being stopped. News channels have been censored, and some journalists were briefly detained before their equipment was broken or confiscated.

But several Western firms have taken bold stances and tried to help Egyptians protest anyway, and good PR is part of the package:

Google's Text/Voice/Tweet service

Google and its fresh acquisition SayNow quickly put together a new service called "Speak to Tweet" that lets Egyptians quickly release Tweets to the Web by calling one of a suite of special numbers, and leaving a voicemail. Google's service then translates the voicemail into a text-based tweet, and auto-tweets it with the hashtag #Egypt.

It's a brilliant idea, for a country who's digital infrastructure has, from a man-on-the-street perspective, been shut down. Speak to Tweet is a definite boon for Egyptians trying to get news out to the world at large--particularly important given the rough treatment of foreign journalists that's been reported.

But since people inside Egypt now really can't access the Net, it's not a service that'll support the protesters at all. Is this a case of Google trying hard (those coders worked through the weekend, after all) but kinda missing the target? And accidentally promoting some clever new technology (along with technical fleet-footedness) along the way? There's also that positive PR, in a "don't be evil" sense, gained by working for such an admirable cause.

YouTube

YouTube has been a handy resource for us outside Egypt to see, from journalist footage as well as cell phone footage, what's actually happening on the streets of the cities.

YouTube (a Google property) pulled together an official blog post to corral "Egyptian protest footage on YouTube" in one place. The post notes the "thousands of videos of the protests have poured in" and YouTube understands "how closely the world is following these events" and wants to "help people access and share this information quickly and easily on YouTube." It then lists three ways it does this: Via the latest footage appearing on CitizenTube channel, "pointing our users directly to these videos through banners at the top of YouTube pages, and through links alongside YouTube videos" and by streaming live coverage of Al Jazeera's Egypt broadcasts, "on both their Arabic and English YouTube channels."

Interestingly there's still some small ad placements on CitizenTube, although not on the Al Jazeera channels, and YouTube's landing page as of the time of writing is almost bereft of focused Egypt content (which YouTube's blog post may lead you to think they're promoting) apart from a small "Spotlight video" segment, one video image on a page of 25 other "normal" videos. YouTube, and Google, will of course make more advertising money from viewers if millions of folk flock to check out what's going on in Egypt. And though the videos may be viewed with interest by other potential protesters in nearby Arab nations, they won't do much good inside the nation as no one can see them.

Twitter

Twitter, which many folk are using as a key news source on the Egypt crisis, has perhaps the most ethical stand regarding the matter: It issued a press release via its blog titled "The Tweets Must Flow." Noting that its goal is "to instantly connect people everywhere to what is most meaningful to them," Twitter's team remarks that "freedom of expression is essential," whether it's to "facilitate positive change in a repressed country" or "make us laugh." Then they set out the operating principles by which Twitter itself removes offensive tweets, alongside its focus on freedom of expression.

There's no opportunity-grabbing mention of Egypt. Twitter seems content that until the Net shutdown it was playing a pivotal role in organizing protests, and since then has been a go-to news resource (so much so that even Google is leveraging it with Speak to Tweet).

Ambulance-Chasing in Egypt: Are Google, Twitter, and Others' Motives Pure? | Fast Company
 
Yes there has been a whole lot of Foreigner/Foreign Media interfering & inciting. But is this right? I'm actually very surprised CNN has taken such a hard-line Anti-Mubarak/Pro-Protester stance. I'm not so surprised the BBC is inciting though. They've always done that. CNN's openly biased stance on this conflict definitely crosses a line. It doesn't seem to reflect proper journalistic standards. CNN is a Foreign Media Outlet and i don't think they should be involved with interfering & inciting. I think it's wrong. Mubarak is correct.
 
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Yes there has been a whole lot of Foreigner/Foreign Media interfering & inciting. But is this right?

It makes for an interesting story, but I think media or not the people of Egypt are clearly pissed off.

It was said for a long time that FOX was to blame for the Tea Party Movement.

If you believe either you're an idiot. When people get mad they rise up. What you're seeing in Egypt is a 3 decade long oil spill that the Tunisian revolution threw a match on top of.

I'm actually very surprised CNN has taken such a hard-line Anti-Mubarak/Pro-Protester stance. I'm not so surprised the BBC is inciting though.

Anderson Cooper getting his ass beat might have something to do with that.

They've always done that. CNN's openly biased stance on this conflict definitely crosses a line. It doesn't seem to reflect proper journalistic standards. CNN is a Foreign Media Outlet and i don't think they should be involved with interfering & inciting. I think it's wrong. Mubarak is correct.

It is. However you can't insite people to violence who have things to lose. In the long run you can't blame CNN for the socio-economic problems that have brought Egypt to the state that it's in today. You can't blame them for a 30 year dictatorship. You can't blame them for the death squads and police state run by Mubarak. You can't blame them for fraudulent parliamentary elections. You can't blame them, twitter, facebook, google, BBC, ABC, NBC, FOX, Al Jazeera, or anybody else. Mubarak has to face the fact that he's reached his limit with the people and should move on.
 
It is not the foriegn media that has been responsible. Its been the MEDIA. Sure YouTube, Twitter, texting, Facebook, etc.. originated from the U.S., but they were used as vehicle to spread the news. Remember that the Google employee/exec that was held by the Egyptian Goverment is Egyptian (Ghonim).
 
Yes there has been a whole lot of Foreigner/Foreign Media interfering & inciting. But is this right?

It makes for an interesting story, but I think media or not the people of Egypt are clearly pissed off.

It was said for a long time that FOX was to blame for the Tea Party Movement.

If you believe either you're an idiot. When people get mad they rise up. What you're seeing in Egypt is a 3 decade long oil spill that the Tunisian revolution threw a match on top of.

I'm actually very surprised CNN has taken such a hard-line Anti-Mubarak/Pro-Protester stance. I'm not so surprised the BBC is inciting though.

Anderson Cooper getting his ass beat might have something to do with that.

They've always done that. CNN's openly biased stance on this conflict definitely crosses a line. It doesn't seem to reflect proper journalistic standards. CNN is a Foreign Media Outlet and i don't think they should be involved with interfering & inciting. I think it's wrong. Mubarak is correct.

It is. However you can't insite people to violence who have things to lose. In the long run you can't blame CNN for the socio-economic problems that have brought Egypt to the state that it's in today. You can't blame them for a 30 year dictatorship. You can't blame them for the death squads and police state run by Mubarak. You can't blame them for fraudulent parliamentary elections. You can't blame them, twitter, facebook, google, BBC, ABC, NBC, FOX, Al Jazeera, or anybody else. Mubarak has to face the fact that he's reached his limit with the people and should move on.

Yea you're right for the most part. You can't blame the Foreigners/Foreign Press for all of Egypt's problems. But they sure are interfering and inciting over there. CNN especially,has been pushing a very hard-line Anti-Mubarak/Pro-Protester agenda. Anderson Cooper can no longer be considered a journalist in my opinion. His bias is blatant and astounding. Obviously he and CNN are backing the Protesters. That just doesn't seem like credible journalism to me. I just don't feel comfortable with my Government and American Media Outlets interfering over there. Hey that's just my opinion though. Thanks for the great reply.
 
First the CON$ were blaming Obama's speeches.
Now they are blaming the media.
How long will it be before the CON$ are blaming the Unions and Hollywood?
 
First the CON$ were blaming Obama's speeches.
Now they are blaming the media.
How long will it be before the CON$ are blaming the Unions and Hollywood?


Like I stated before. The media is a vehicle . . . a tool . . . a lot like you. The media is probably one of the most powerful entities in the world. I knew that when I was majoring in journalism. Twenty years later, you have the dominoe effect happening that started with Wikipeidia, Tunisia, Egypt, etc.. The CONs and the LIBs control the media. They can put the truth out there, put a spin on it, or downright lie. A lot of people are influenced by the media, from TV to newspapers to radio to the internet. From news reports to the stock market to fashion. That is power.

I don't have an allegiance between parties. My family has served their time in past wars as well as I have for this country so individuals such as yourself can express your views.
 
First the CON$ were blaming Obama's speeches.
Now they are blaming the media.
How long will it be before the CON$ are blaming the Unions and Hollywood?

Are you reading the same OP as everyone else? Seriously..... WTF do the conservatives have to do with the subject? It's about Mubarak blaming the foreign media and foreign influencers for the revolution..... Could you please stop making everything fucking thread into a 'left vs right' thing?

Idiot.
 

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