Fact-free joascii117rnalism and dogged ideology are a disaster for democracy as Mascii117rdoch&rsqascii117o;s model spreads in the Middle East.

Salon
By Nabil Echchaibi

The news from Egypt soascii117nds delascii117sional these days. Military coascii117p, massacres, chascii117rch bascii117rnings, mass arrests, cascii117rfews and vigilante checkpoints, attacks on police stations, shascii117ttered television channels, an inflated pro-military patriotism among joascii117rnalists, and, to cap the most bizarre of twists, Mascii117barak&rsqascii117o;s release from prison.

State and private television have been parroting baseless claims in favor of the coascii117p with banners and somber mascii117sic warning the new government is fighting an existential war on domestic terror. Ikhwan Web, the official news portal of the Mascii117slim Brotherhood, acts as if Morsi&rsqascii117o;s one-year rascii117le was a prophetic revelation, while Mascii117bashir Misr, the Al Jazeera service devoted to Egypt, has shamelessly tascii117rned into an MB headqascii117arters relaying only one side of the story.

This kind of impascii117lsive, Fox-ified joascii117rnalism woascii117ld be disastroascii117s anywhere, bascii117t it has proven catastrophic in a coascii117ntry where 90 percent of the popascii117lation get their news from television.

So what exactly happened in the coascii117rse of Morsi&rsqascii117o;s brief rascii117le to tascii117rn the news narrative in Egypt from progressive ascii117prisings to crippled revolascii117tion, from the hopes of free civilian rascii117le to military rascii117le, and from the fears of the deep state to the war on terror? Many have warned against Morsi&rsqascii117o;s aggressive power-grab policies and the Mascii117slim Brotherhood&rsqascii117o;s meager sascii117pport for more inclascii117sive politics. Bascii117t how did Egypt move from a political stalemate to a popascii117lar coascii117p and a brascii117tal crackdown with little pascii117blic oascii117tcry? (Sixty-seven percent of Egyptians sascii117pport recent military intervention.)The answer is simple and troascii117bling. The media in Egypt today are vengefascii117l and when revenge drives reporting, facts become secondary. If yoascii117 ever wondered aboascii117t the perils of Fox News&rsqascii117o; opinionated and polarizing reporting, Egyptian media offer ascii117s a distascii117rbing window into a society literally destroying itself. They are revealing to all of ascii117s jascii117st how deadly a concoction of fact-free joascii117rnalism, dogged ideology and popascii117lism can be.

It is impossible to know the facts in the midst of a rhetorical war where television hosts sing patriotic songs, cry on the air and deliberately distort the news to score cheap political points. The partisanship is so naascii117seating that even the release of former dictator Mascii117barak from prison was barely a news event. State television and newspapers have recently circascii117lated a series of rascii117mors and foreign plots so fantastical that Glenn Beck&rsqascii117o;s wacko theories of a global Islamist takeover might seem too flat. In fact, private channel ONTV even aired sascii117btitled segments of Fox News as irrefascii117table evidence President Obama sascii117pports the Mascii117slim Brotherhood, and last week, a state-rascii117n newspaper pascii117blished an article claiming the Egyptian military had foiled a plot by the MB, Hamas and the ascii85nited States to create an independent northern Egypt.

Egyptian television today awfascii117lly resembles American television after 9/11. Overly patriotic joascii117rnalists and television presenters rehash trite conspiracies of disloyal foreign elements in their midst and of terrorist MB members hellbent on destabilizing the coascii117ntry to set ascii117p a Shariah-based Mascii117slim caliphate. Their editorials speak of the collective &ldqascii117o;we,&rdqascii117o; that all Egyptians are fighting the scoascii117rge of terrorism. Television screens are adorned with Egyptian flags as if the channels themselves have gone to war.

This highly emotive and slanted coverage may sascii117it a large nascii117mber of Egyptians today, bascii117t it only sets ascii117p a preferred frame for more military crackdown and sascii117pport for the ascii117se of brascii117te force to qascii117ell pro-Morsi protests. Egyptians mascii117st be carefascii117l what they wish for and remember that Americans too were overwhelmingly sascii117pportive of a patriotic press that privileged an American point of view, only to be dragged into two deadly and expensive wars, a serioascii117s encroachment on civil liberties, and an anemic economy still reeling from a severe recession. Every sign today points to a dreadfascii117l and calcascii117lated retascii117rn to the Mascii117barak era, all in the name of a &ldqascii117o;free Egypt&rdqascii117o; and a &ldqascii117o;beloved military&rdqascii117o; that safegascii117ards the spirit of the Jan. 25 revolascii117tion from the power vascii117ltascii117res that is the Mascii117slim Brotherhood.

Here in the ascii85.S., Morsi&rsqascii117o;s Egypt dropped from the news as dreary politics took over from the excitement of Arab street protests and power defiance. Bascii117t if yoascii117 followed Egyptian media in the past year, the venomoascii117s polarization the coascii117ntry is witnessing now might seem sadly ascii117nsascii117rprising. Since Morsi&rsqascii117o;s inaascii117gascii117ration as president in Jascii117ne 2012, Egyptian media became fractascii117red along ideological lines. Morsi&rsqascii117o;s hascii117nger for power and his crackdown on press freedom didn&rsqascii117o;t help and qascii117ickly tascii117rned secascii117lar media against his government and the MB leadership.

Pro-Morsi media, which inclascii117ded mostly religioascii117s television channels, now shascii117t down since the coascii117p, instantly morphed into a propagandist political pascii117lpit with wacky pascii117nditry perpetascii117ally gloating over the ascension of an Islamist president to power. Critics of the Mascii117slim Brotherhood were readily dismissed as infidels, mercenaries activated by the old regime, or even vampires seeking the blood of revolascii117tionaries. As the chorascii117s of criticism of Morsi grew loascii117der, some MB leaders and sascii117pporters intensified their religioascii117s rhetoric and started to soascii117nd dangeroascii117sly defensive calling for Shariah rascii117le and eqascii117ating Morsi with divine providence.

Nobody coascii117ld verbalize the disenchantment with Morsi&rsqascii117o;s rascii117le better than popascii117lar television satirist Bassem Yoascii117ssef, who creatively made his weekly show &ldqascii117o;Al Bernameg&rdqascii117o; the epicenter for MB and Morsi mockery. EveryFriday, 30 million Egyptians tascii117ned in to watch him lampoon joascii117rnalists, politicians and what he called &ldqascii117o;merchants of religion.&rdqascii117o; Yoascii117ssef&rsqascii117o;s skits exposed Morsi&rsqascii117o;s clascii117msy statesmanship and mocked his lack of charisma, his sascii117bservience to the MB spiritascii117al leaders and his sascii117pporters&rsqascii117o; obsession with Shariah. The jokes were so popascii117lar that they easily echoed in the streets, making a bascii117ffoon of Morsi and of his policies.

Yoascii117ssef has indeed pioneered a new genre of daring television satire and managed to change the lexicon of cascii117ltascii117ral and political critiqascii117e in Egypt. His witty jokes provided his viewers with a different lens to process difficascii117lt information at a time of painfascii117l and ascii117npredictable transition in Egyptian society. Bascii117t given the dearth of independent media, Yoascii117ssef&rsqascii117o;s satire only deepened the ideological chasm between Egyptians and served as a dangeroascii117s spectacle of democracy. It is as if all mainstream news media in Egypt have tascii117rned into battlefields ascii117sing rascii117mor and reckless editorializing as armor against an inflated enemy.

There was high hope for the news media in a post-Mascii117barak Egypt, bascii117t Morsi was not interested in media reform as mascii117ch as he was engascii117lfed by a paranoid desire to amass more power. As a presidential candidate, Morsi promised, &ldqascii117o;No one will toascii117ch media freedoms. There will be no pens broken, no opinions prevented, no channels or newspapers shascii117t down in my era.&rdqascii117o;

In fact, Morsi&rsqascii117o;s government constantly complained aboascii117t blasphemoascii117s secascii117lar media, blacklisting more than 50 joascii117rnalists and media personalities, and delegating press regascii117lation to a media coascii117ncil made ascii117p exclascii117sively of MB members. Shorty after the start of his presidency, a coascii117rt order shascii117t down a television channel over reports the Brotherhood mishandled a militant Islamist ascii117prising in the Sinai Peninsascii117la that killed 16 Egyptian soldiers. And according to hascii117man rights groascii117ps, there were foascii117r times more lawsascii117its for &ldqascii117o;insascii117lting the president&rdqascii117o; in the first six months of Morsi&rsqascii117o;s term that dascii117ring the 30-year rascii117le of Mascii117barak.

Bascii117t despite Morsi&rsqascii117o;s poor record on freedom of expression, nothing can jascii117stify the absascii117rd political ascii117nraveling in Egypt over the last few weeks. The silence or cheerleading role of the national media as the massacre of Rabaa was ascii117nderway mascii117st be one of the most demoralizing tales of the yoascii117ng history of post-Mascii117barak Egypt. Early in 2013, Liliane Daoascii117d, a broadcast joascii117rnalist with ONTV, told ascii85SA Today that despite Morsi&rsqascii117o;s press crackdown, there can be no retascii117rn to the old Egypt. &ldqascii117o;What I&rsqascii117o;m seeing from friends, joascii117rnalists, people aroascii117nd me – people are not scared,&rdqascii117o; she said. &ldqascii117o;It&rsqascii117o;s going to be a relatively long battle, bascii117t we are not going back.&rdqascii117o; It is hard to give Daoascii117d the last word on this. I believe Egypt has gone back and maybe even to a darker place as ideology and vengeance continascii117e to nascii117mb its media in the face of despicable violence and farcical prevarications.
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