Survey finds "one-man bands" on relentless march; Comcast purchase of Time Warner opposed on racial grounds; Angelou service Saturday will be private, but streamed; reaction to Google figures: Asians became white; . . . photographer Marilynn Yee retires after 37 Years of N.Y.; challenging an assertion that Latinos have, too; exposing companies that renege on diversity promises; Egyptian TV swayed voters from Morsi, toward Sisi (6/2/14)Survey Finds "One-Man Bands" on Relentless March
Egyptian TV Swayed Voters From Morsi, Toward Sisi
"The dramatic shift in popular opinion that is expected to lift a former army chief to president of Egypt traces, in part, to an incident outside a TV station last year," Matt Bradley wrote last week for the Wall Street Journal.
"One night last June, long before Field Marshal Abdel Fattah Al Sisi was seen as presidential material here, the news directors of six satellite news channels huddled in an office to discuss growing protests outside by backers of Mohammed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood leader elected president after the Arab Spring uprising.
"The news directors say they were terrified. Islamists enraged at the stations' criticisms of Mr. Morsi had surrounded the office park that housed their TV offices, intimidating reporters who came and went.
"The news directors made a decision: From then on, their stations would refer to Muslim Brotherhood supporters as 'terrorists.'
"The protesters 'were saying "We will kill you." They started throwing Molotov cocktails at the gate. So this was terrorism,' said Albert Shafik, news director of a channel called OnTV.
"'So we explained this every day on air.'
"The language in broadcasts watched by millions proved a pivot point in Egypt's circuitous development after the Arab Spring, from nascent democracy to a new embrace of leadership by former generals.
"Mr. Morsi, elected in 2012 in the first free and fair presidential election Egypt had held in decades, now sits in prison, facing capital murder charges. . . ."