All the News from All Angles

Why do Western media lie repeating the slogan "Reporting all the news from all angles” when they know they don’t?

(MANAMA, Bahrain) - This morning burning tires on the highway filled the air with black smoke and blocked traffic.

The day before saw oil spread on the roads so that cars would slip and slide and collide with each other.

When police in the UK act to suppress mob violence with tear gas or water cannon, the Western press refers to it as riot control.

When police in Bahrain try to control destructive thugs with the same batons as used in the UK or America, the police are castigated for torture.

When police in the West face protestors who resist, they use pepper spray and tasers to quell the violence.

When police in Bahrain attempt to quell violence with tear gas, they are accused of using excessive force.

When Western journalists write stories about demonstrations, the public gets the seamy side of a response.

When Bahrain denies visas to journalists, they know those journalists only report what’s sordid.

When New York Times op-ed columnist Nicholas Kristof writes that Bahrain "represents a brutal, family-run dictatorship...” he's surprised when he gets called for that untruth.

When Western reporters refer to the monarchs in Arabia, they consistently call them dictators. They know, full well, the negative connotations of their choice of words.

When Western journalists refer to monarchs or members of royal families in Europe or Asia, they respectfully call them king or queen or prince and princess.

When the Western media refers to Middle Eastern royal families and their supporters, they refer to them less pleasantly as regimes.

When the Western media refers to the families of Western royals, they respectfully label them royalty.

What right do Western journalists have to belittle countries that they have never lived in and know little about?

What right have members of the Western media to accept unverified reports of events?

What right have Westerners to prescribe democracy for countries with governance that has been better than democracies?

What right have Western democracies to assume that their democracies are the best form of government for all?

What right do members of Western democracies have to pretend that their system of government is faultless when it suffers from gridlock that prevents anything from being achieved?

What right have Western democracies to pretend that their system of government is the best when they have never measured it against other systems?

Why doesn't the press challenge contradictory American statements about being "in lockstep with Israel" while simultaneously calling for a “diplomatic solution"?

Why doesn't the press report that America's removal of troops from Afghanistan and Iraq is meant to deploy them and surround Iran in support of an Israeli strike?

Why do journalists interview only a few protestors while ignoring staunch defenders of the realm?

Why does Reporters without Borders complain about journalists being refused visas when those reporters haven’t reported fairly?

Why do Western media lie repeating the slogan "Reporting all the news from all angles” when they know they don’t?

Why don’t Western media anchors and reporters start doing what they claim they do? Why don’t they report ALL the news from ALL angles?

Throughout his life as an educator, Dr. Paul J. Balles, a retired American university professor and freelance writer, has lived and worked in the Middle East for 40 years - first as an English professor (Universities of Kuwait and Bahrain), and for the past ten years as a writer, editor and editorial consultant.

Paul has had more than 350 articles published, focusing on companies, personality profiles, entrpreneurs, women achievers, journalists and the media, the Middle East, American politics, the Internet and the Web, consumer reports, Arabs, diplomats, dining out and travel. Paul's articles on Salem-News.com are frank and enlightening. We are very appreciative of the incredible writings Dr. Balles has generated for our readers over the years, and we are very pleased to list him among our most valued contributors.

Indulging the hard subjects that keep the world divided is our specialty at Salem-News.com, and with writers like Dr. Paul Balles on our team, we amplify our ability to meet challenges and someday, will see the effects of this exist in context with a more peaceful and generally successful world.