In a Sept. 24 interview with the pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat, Egypt's interim foreign minister, Nabil Fahmy, stated that Cairo's relations with Washington have become “turbulent” and that the Egyptian public has adopted an unprecedented negative perception of the United States. One of the most significant factors contributing to the deterioration of relations between Cairo and Washington is the difference between Egyptian and American media coverage.
The minute the military ousted President Mohammed Morsi on July 3, Egyptian state and independent media went on the offensive with three themes: the Muslim Brotherhood and Morsi’s poor record in office; the pro-Brotherhood bias of the Obama administration and the US media; and the supposed relationship between the two. Indeed, it became increasingly difficult not to find a daily story detailing the “intimate” relationship between the Obama administration and the Muslim Brotherhood.
Consequently, Egypt’s media were taken by surprise when Obama recently stated at the United Nations General Assembly annual meeting that “going forward the United States will maintain a constructive relationship with the interim government, which promotes core interests such as the Camp David Accords and counterterrorism.” When Obama added that “Morsi was democratically elected but proved unwilling or unable to govern in a way that was fully inclusive," Egyptian media celebrated. Headlines in independent media sources such as al-Shorouk reflected that the accord between the Brotherhood and Obama was no longer.
Yet even before July 3, accusations regarding the “special relationship” between Obama and the Brotherhood were apparent. The moment Morsi was announced as president on June 24, 2012, Egypt’s media launched a campaign against the United States and its alleged role in imposing Morsi on the Egyptian people. Several Egyptian media outlets credited Obama and his former ambassador to Cairo, Anne Patterson, for the result. Headlines described Patterson as an “ambassador from hell” and “insolent,” while others accused Obama himself of being a member of the Brotherhood. Articles even went so far as to assert that Morsi’s ascent to power was part of a larger American conspiracy to create “the greater Middle East” and divide the Arab world.
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