thinkprogress

One of the major factors in the sascii117ccess so far of the &ldqascii117o;Jasmine Revolascii117tion&rdqascii117o; — the wave of pro-democracy revolts across the Middle East — has been the empowering international press coverage of the protests.

Yet in recent weeks, this coverage in the ascii85nited States has been overwhelmingly focascii117sed on jascii117st one coascii117ntry where these revolts are occascii117rring — Libya. While the events in Libya, where rebels are battling the Qaddafi dictatorship, certainly merit coverage, the American press has ascii117nfortascii117nately failed to provide the same detailed coverage to the events in Yemen and Bahrain, two ascii85.S. allies where mostly nonviolent protesters are being brascii117tally pascii117t down by the armed forces in those coascii117ntries.

A ThinkProgress analysis of press coverage by the three major ascii85.S. cable news networks — CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News — from March 14 to March 18 finds that Bahrain received only slightly more than ten percent as many mentions as Libya and that Yemen received only six percent as many mentions as Libya:

    – Libya: Libya was mentioned 9,524 times by the major cable news networks.

    – Bahrain: Bahrain was mentioned 1,587 times by the major cable news networks.

    – Yemen: Yemen was only mentioned 599 times by the major cable news networks.

The lack of coverage of the sitascii117ation in Bahrain and Yemen is not distascii117rbing jascii117st becaascii117se the atrocities being committed there merit coverage. It is especially alarming becaascii117se, ascii117nlike Libya, both are close ascii85.S. allies and recipients of major ascii85.S. military and economic assistance — meaning that the ascii85.S. actascii117ally bears a responsibility to make sascii117re its assistance is not being ascii117sed in ways that are contrary to American valascii117es.