U.S. President Barack Obama gestures while talking in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, April 30, 2013. REUTERS/Larry Downing
Arab Press Pans President Obama on Syria -- Politico
If President Barack Obama isn’t happy with his press coverage in the United States, he ought to take a look at how he’s being portrayed in the Arab media.
As Obama steps up his push for congressional authorization for a strike on Syria, the president is coming under withering criticism by opinion leaders throughout the Middle East, according to a review by POLITICO and experts of Arabic- and English-language media in the region.
The Obama bashing can be categorized in several ways: Those who charge the president’s needlessly dragging his feet; conspiracy theorists who argue it’s all a plot to boost Israel; and others who claim that any military operation in Syria is motivated only by the U.S.’s interest in dominating the region.
The increasingly unfavorable coverage Obama’s receiving in the Arab world - even come from the press in countries that support U.S. intervention in Syria - is doing harm to his image and influence, as well as further diminishing how America is perceived in the region, experts say. It hits especially hard coming at a time when Obama is looking anywhere he can, at home and abroad, to find allies for his plan to punish the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
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My Comment: The press in Europe are also giving President Obama a hard time .... as well as Asia. I live in Canada, and the press here has been ambivalent .... but criticism is starting to seep in. As for the U.S. media .... from my vantage point in Canada .... I find the mainstream media continuing to be supportive of the President.