Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting

Making Islamophobia Mainstream

In works such as Orientalism and Covering Islam, cultural analyst Edward Said criticized an ideology that he argued treated peoples of the Middle East and Asia, particularly Muslims, as the "other"--inherently different from and inferior to the people of "the West." It's not hard to find support for his thesis in U.S. establishment journalism.

In reporting on an Iraqi family's refusal to accept a cash payment after their son was shot dead by private U.S. security contractor Blackwater, the L.A. Times (5/4/08) emphasized that the "shooting and its aftermath show the deep disconnect between the American legal process and the traditional culture of Iraq," explaining that "traditional Arab society values honor and decorum above all."

Similarly, a New York Times news article (8/25/08) about the Afghan response to a U.S. military attack in Afghanistan that killed 90 civilians noted that bombings and house raids "are seen as culturally unacceptable by many Afghans who guard their privacy fiercely," while the detention of hundreds of Afghans without trial was said to have "stirred up Afghans' strong independent streak and ancient dislike of invaders."

Why is it necessary to invoke cultural stereotypes to explain why you won't accept an envelope full of cash after mercenaries kill your child? Or to explain quite normal opposition to being bombed, detained or aggressively searched? Because the widespread assumption in the U.S. media is that people in Iraq and Afghanistan, and elsewhere in the Muslim world, are fundamentally unlike Americans.

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