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Blame Media: Washington Faces Inevitable Predicament in Egypt

The Egyptian government demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of how the US press operates.
Anti-Mursi protesters cheer and hold up a poster depicting U.S. president Barack Obama with a beard at Tahrir square, where protesters gathered for a mass protest to support the army, in Cairo, July 26, 2013. Egypt's army is recasting the country's political drama, giving popular army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi the starring role in a change with echoes of the past that could undermine democracy in the Arab world. Picture taken July 26, 2013. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh  (EGYPT - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST M

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.

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