Volume VI, Issue V

JHU POLITIKISSUE V, 3/7/11

Volume VI, Issue VMarch 7, 2011

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JOHNS HOPKINS’s Only Weekly-Published Political Magazine

Also in this Week’s Edition:

LIBYA ON THE BRINK OFCIVIL WAR

By Thomas Bozada, Jr., ‘12-Page 6

OPINION

www.JHUPOLITIK.com

THE REVIVAL OF THEDREAM ACT

By Sahdia Khan, ‘13-Page 4

NATIONAL

JOURNALISTICIRRESPONSIBILITY

By Hilary Matfess, ‘14- Page 7

PLAYING THE FIELD

By Randy Bell, ‘13-Page 3

IN PRAISE OF THEWESTBORO DECISION

By Sam Lichtenstein, ‘11 -Page 6

(Continued on Page 2)

THE SPECTER OF AGOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

ast week, an exasperatedSenator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) ex-

claimed, “The only people talkingabout shutdown are media and De-mocrats.” In truth, the past fewweeks have been dominated by talksof a government shutdown fromboth sides of the aisle. Granted, theapocalyptic mood has been particu-larly prevalent amongst Democrats,who deem the proposed budget cutsto be untenable. However, there areDemocrats reticent to give up gov-ernment programs deemed instru-mental and fear that cuttingspending will dramatically stifle ouralready flailing economy. Mean-while, Republicans, as fiscally aus-tere advocates of the cuts, despair atthe ever-burgeoning debt.

When Goldman Sachs decided toget involved, its report stirred a

commotion. The company’s reportlast week detailed the effects of theGOP’s proposed $61 billion in cutsand argued that they would reduceoverall growth of the economy by anastounding two percent, causing theloss of 700,000 jobs. The Center ofAmerican Progress, a liberal thinktank with close ties to the Obamaadministration, stated that the fig-ures were even greater, with a directcut of 650,000 jobs and an indirectloss of another 350,000.

These astounding numbers in-stilled fear into the hearts of many,on both the left and the right of thepolitical aisle, especially as thesecuts also seemed to be occurring intandem with other, more con-tentious losses. Wisconsin GovernorScott Walker (R) decided to wagewhat Democrats feel is an ideologi-

by Briana Last, ‘14Staff Writer

cal crusade against labor, by at-tempting to eliminate collective bar-gaining rights for public-employeeunions. Other states are enactingsimilar measures to balance budgets,thereby eliminating or severely re-ducing public programs.

However, the discussions sur-rounding the proposed budget cutsand a potential government shut-down undoubtedly have tended to-wards the hyperbolic. In response tothe Goldman Sachs report, BenBernanke, Chairman of the Federal

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INTERNATIONAL

President Barack Obama stands with Republican members of Congress in House Speaker John Boehner'sceremonial office before his State of the Union Address. (Pete Souza/whitehouse.gov)

Reserve, assuaged the doomsayers in his semiannual re-port to Congress that the numbers simply couldn’t beright, “Two percent [reduction in growth] is enormousand would be based on $300 billion in cuts.”

Megan McArdle, Business and Economics Editor ofThe Atlantic, supports Bernanke’s claim that the budgetcuts will have less of a central effect on the economythan people have been led to believe. Accordingly to her,“It's important to remember what $60 billion dollarsrepresents. It is barely 0.4% of GDP. It is 1% of all gov-ernment spending in the US, and 1.6% of total federalspending. It is 4% of the budget deficit projected for2011 by the CBO [Congressional Budget Office].” McAr-dle rails against the ideological quarrels that inspire bothsides of the debate, “It's not that I am enthusiastic aboutthe GOP's spending cuts; while I'm certainly glad thatthey're showing some real willingness to hit hard spend-ing targets, the economy is still pretty fragile. But asBernanke says, this just isn't going to make much differ-ence. In the face of the current budget, these changes arebasically trivial and symbolic. And getting hysterical isn'thelping anything.”

Much the frenzy over a government shutdown was aresult of exaggerated numbers. Congress still felt it nec-essary to initiate a continuing resolution just a few daysago. That is, its members put off establishing a fullyformed budget and have only addressed temporary

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measures to finance the government. They extended de-liberation by two weeks, thereby giving both the Repub-lican-controlled House of Representatives and theDemocrat-controlled Senate until March 18 to reconciletheir differences and come up with a solution.While Republicans vie for cutting non-defense related

discretionary spending, Democrats have been pushingback, clinging to government programs that are near anddear to their constituents. They have only compromisedon cutting spending on proposals that President Obamamade to Congress and, as such, they are resisting a blan-ket elimination of earmarks.

Yet, even as both sides bicker over what to cut, thereare certain issues the two sides can agree must remain,no matter how cumbersome they might be. In “Contin-uing Irresolution,”The Economist details that even morecuts on spending could be made: “The Government Ac-countability Office, an official watchdog, produced a re-port this week identifying billions of dollars that couldbe saved by streamlining the federal bureaucracy. But itseems unlikely that the Republicans’ full target can bemet painlessly. Their proposal includes cuts to worthyand popular items such as college scholarships for thepoor and nutrition schemes for babies.”

Whatever our elected representatives decide, it is in-evitable that spending must be cut. In the midst of all ofthe shutdown-inspired panic and resistance, the need to

The POLITIKEDITOR-In-Chief

Joshua AyalEditor-in-Chief

Harry BlackEditor-in-Chief

Sam Lichtenstein

Executive Editors

Will DentonMorgan Hitzig

Hannah Holliday

Managing Editor

Matt Varvaro

Staff Writers

Randy BellAlex ClearfieldRachel CohenRohit DasguptaEric FeinbergBecca FishbeinConor FoleyCary Glynn

Benjamin GoldbergPaul GrossingerDan HochmanJordan KalmsAnna KochutBriana Last

Hilary MatfessDaniel RoettgerAri Schaffer

Faculty Advisor

Steven R. David

JHU POLITIK is a student-run politicalpublication. Please note that the opin-ions expressed within JHU POLITIK arethose solely of the author.

Please sign up for our e-mail list on ourwebsite, www.JHUPOLITIK.com

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PRODUCTION MANAGERS

Casey NavinNeil O’Donnell


Caucus, the field of candidates with a realistic shot at thepresidency had dwindled to only a few. The candidatesthat emerged were Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, andJohn Edwards for the Democrats and John McCain,Mike Huckabee, and Mitt Romney for the Republicans.After several heated matches in key states, controversyin Florida and Michigan over whether their delegateswould be counted after pushing their primaries back,and a truly historic battle between Hillary Clinton andwould-be President Barack Obama, only seven candi-dates received delegates at all: Obama, Clinton, Edwards,McCain, Huckabee, Romney, and Republican Ron Paul.

It is expected that many old faces will be returning totry their hand again in 2012. For the Democrats, Presi-dent Obama has formally announced his intention to runagain as the Democratic candidate, while the RepublicanParty's representative is still up in the air. After very suc-cessful midterm elections last November, the Grand OldParty has found new life and seeks to avenge its presi-dential election loss in 2012 with new vigor and spirit.Senator John McCain, who lost to Obama in 2008 due toa powerful wave of support for the Democratic Partyfrom younger voters and a strong disapproval of outgo-ing Republican president George W. Bush, says that hewill not run again. Asked by C-SPAN host whether he'seying another run for the White House in 2012, McCainreplied, "No. I've had my chance twice. It's time for a newgeneration, and we've got a new generation of Republi-can leaders out there....we're gonna come back."

Ironically, McCain was the source of the movementthat now has a realistic chance of doing what McCaincould not do himself: beat Barack Obama. By choosingformer Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin as his runningmate in 2008, he sparked a new wing of the RepublicanParty popular with grassroots conservatives – the TeaParty. Led by Republican leaders, old and new, the TeaParty took the Obama mojo of change in Washington andturned it against our 44th president with its call forchange in Washington, smaller government, lower taxes,more accountability, and an end to the out-of-controldeficit.As Obama's numbers are leveling out and the economy

appears to be less than what most had hoped for underhis watch, the political pendulum is beginning to swingback in the Republicans' favor and their leading men andwomen are keen to take advantage. Although Palin hasn'tofficially announced her candidacy, she has insinuated apossible run. "Nobody's more qualified for the job thana woman, a mom or a governor maybe," she said at an

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reduce the deficit has been almost entirely ignored. In-deed, another deadline is looming: the Treasury Depart-ment has warned that it may reach its congressionallyimposed debt ceiling as early at April 15. While nearly allobservers agree that the limit will, as always be raised,its political significance is not lost on any politicians.How Congress acts in the next two weeks will undoubt-edly affect the political debate surrounding the burgeon-ing national debt. The time for tough decisions has come.Rest assured, crowd-pleasing displays of political the-atre, on both sides of the aisle, will be on display over thenext few weeks. s

Playing the Field

by Randy Bell, ‘13Staff Writer

Every four years, our country is treated to a spectaclelike none other. Dozens of candidates enter the politicalarena hoping to ascend to the nation's highest office asleader of the free world and gain immortality as highschool students from now until the end of time areforced to learn their names. These battles push politicalideologies to their limit, testing the warriors' ability todebate, speak publicly, and kiss the occasional baby ortwo. After the dust settles, only one man (or woman ifthe proverbial glass ceiling of gender exclusivity is shat-tered by the recent trend of viable female candidates forthe presidency) remains, while the others are relegatedto thoughts of what could have been: days in the Oval Of-fice, nights in the Lincoln Bedroom, and acceptance intoan elite class of individuals who have changed the world.The road to the White House is grueling and tiresome,

but the light at the end of the tunnel is what drives theseselect men and women to partake in the quadrennial ex-travaganza that never ceases to make an indelible impacton the zeitgeist of popular culture. It is a process thatmakes friends out of enemies, enemies out of friends,and introduces new concepts and strategies that haveforever reflected the peak of American politics anddemocracy throughout the ages.

The year 2008 saw arguably the most heated and ex-citing political election in decades. All told, 21 candidatesfrom the Democratic and Republican parties threw theirhats into the ring to win their respected parties' nomi-nations, but one-by-one dropped like flies. By the end ofthe first primary races in New Hampshire and the Iowa

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then Sarah Palin. With a growing field of supporters, theodds of a Ron Paul presidential bid are almost certain,but his chances of beating Obama are regarded by manyas slim. Obama has a larger percentage of support fromhis party than does Paul.A Gallup Poll of 1,326 Republican voters and Republi-

can-leaning Independents showed Mike Huckabee astheir favorite at 18%, Romney and Palin at 16% each, andGingrich at 9%. Evangelicals also favor Huckabee (88%favorable, 11% unfavorable) leading Palin at (79% favor-able, 21% unfavorable), Gingrich (57% favorable, 37% un-favorable), Romney (56% favorable, 29% unfavorable)and Paul (51% favorable, 26% unfavorable).Time will tell who the Republicans will choose to faceoff against their old nemesis, but one thing is for certain:if the 2012 presidential election is even half as fun andentertaining as it was in 2008, we are all in for anotherelection for the ages. s

The Revival of the DREAM Act

by Sahdia Khan, ‘13Contributing Writer

As both Democrats and Republicans scour the countryfor potential votes in the 2012 election, they inexorablyturn their attention to the Hispanic population. With 9.7million Hispanic votes in the 2008 presidential election,it should come as no surprise that the DREAM (Devel-opment, Relief and Education for Alien Minors) Act, leg-islation affecting millions of Hispanics, both legal andillegal, has once again become a heated political issue.The DREAM Act, which failed to pass into law in 2010,

would allow undocumented immigrants to attend Amer-ican universities or serve in the military under certainstipulations. Activists are now working vigorously to re-vive this piece of legislation. The act targets Hispanicyouth who immigrated to the United States as childrenand cannot attend college or join the armed forces dueto their illegal status. Under the legislation, illegal immigrants who entered

the country before the age of 16, have obtained a highschool diploma or GED, have no criminal record, andhave shown a continuous presence for at least five years,will be granted a six-year period to attend college orcomplete two years of military service. Subsequently,these dedicated immigrants would receive the opportu-

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event in Long Island. Mike Huckabee has avoided a di-rect response and has explained what a difficult decisionit truly is and how taxing it can be on one's family, career,and patience. Huckabee, however, was not even invitedthis year’s annual Conservative Political Action Confer-ence, which attracts favored sons of the RepublicanParty every year and which has recently invited men likeGlenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh to speak.

At the same time, former Speaker of the House NewtGingrich is beginning to raise money to see if a run forthe GOP nomination could be a possibility. He met withGeorgia governor Nathan Deal last Thursday as a part ofwhat spokesman Rick Tyler calls his "exploratoryphase." Gingrich and fellow Fox News contributor RickSantorum both had their contracts suspended for twomonths by the network as they continue to explore pos-sible bids to run. Gingrich says that he will make an of-ficial decision in two weeks.Moreover, the U.S. ambassador to China, John Hunts-

man, who is stepping down from his position in April,was recently endorsed by the political action committeeHorizon PAC. The organization is seeking online dona-tions for his possible run even though Huntsman has notofficially declared his candidacy.Fellow Mormon Mitt Romney will likely return to the

field; two key New Hampshire leaders, Executive Coun-cilor Raymond Burton and State Senate Majority LeaderJeb Bradley both have said they will endorse the formerMassachusetts governor.

To add to the mix, former U.S. ambassador to theUnited Nations, John Bolton, has expressed interest inrunning; recent world affairs have sweetened the likeli-hood of his success in the primaries. Bolton has ex-pressed his wish to have more dialogue on world affairs,an area in which he has a wide array of experience andexpertise. Bolton, who is also a Fox News contributor,made a speech on Egypt at this year's CPAC and has beena reliable source of information on the subject of affairsin the turmoil region

Finally, Former Minnesota governor Tom Pawlentysays he will have a decision regarding his possible can-didacy "sometime in the next 45 days or less."

There have been no absolute decisions made yet oneither side of the aisle among expected candidates ex-cept for Barack Obama and Republican senator fromSouth Dakota John Thune, who announced via Face-book that he will continue his work on Capitol Hill. In arecent straw poll of 1,600 Tea Partiers, Ron Paul wastheir favored choice to run against Barack Obama nextyear, followed by Georgia radio host Herman Cain and

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nity to gain U.S. citizenship.Proponents of the act argue that it protects children

of illegal immigrants against punishment from errs oftheir parents. Due solely to their illegal status, these His-panic youth often find themselves disenfranchised andunable to attend college or join the armed forces, whichhas consequently trapped many in low income jobs andimpoverished conditions. Some 85% percent of regis-tered Latino voters stand in favor of the act and 47%identified immigration as the most pressing issue facingthe Latino population.

While the DREAM Act itself failed in the Senate lastDecember, the repercussions are still materializingtoday. Many Hispanic voters have become disgruntledwith the chamber’s lack of progress, leading to tensionswith current members of Congress. With a reputationfor opposing the act, Republicans have garnered only 9%of the Latino vote. Republicans back their stance on im-migration by referencing issues such as jobs, national se-curity, and the ‘war’ on drugs.

In contrast to many opinions within the GOP, Presi-dent Obama has publically tried to revive the legislationand has pushed for immigration reform for Latinos.“Let’s stop expelling talented, responsible young peoplewho could be staffing our research labs or starting a newbusiness, who could be further enriching this nation,”he said in his State of the Union Address. Accordingly,93% of Obama’s Latino support base supports theDREAM Act.

Particularly since the Latino population is a fast ex-panding demographic, both political parties have real-ized the importance of the Latino vote and have gearedtheir policies toward addressing their immigration con-cerns of the growing Hispanic population. As statisticsshow, Latino voters will be closely scrutinizing politicalstances on immigration reform and legislation similar tothe DREAM Act, an issue that could potentially shapethe upcoming presidential election. s

Libya on the Brink of Civil War

by Thomas Bozada, Jr., ‘12Contributing Writer

Across the Middle East and North Africa, rulers andtheir governments have been subjected to mass protests

and calls for revolution. The sweeping calls for reformby citizens, which have already toppled both theTunisian and Egyptian governments, continue to spreadlike wildfire. The leaders of Jordan, Yemen, and Bahrainhave heeded the spirit of reform and opened dialoguewith opposition leaders; even the beloved Sultan ofOman, Qaboos bin Said, has faced protests asking formore societal freedoms. Planned mass protests in Iranand China, known for their strong public security forces,have been met with pre-emptive defenses by their gov-ernments that have prevented the movements from gain-ing a true foothold. None of these countries, however,has faced the overall turmoil and strife that has takenhold in Libya. Colonel Qaddafi, ruler of Libya for 41 years, is refusing

to step down from power, a call that not only has eruptedfrom his own citizens but from rulers around the world.President Obama publicly stated Qaddafi had lost all hislegitimacy as a leader and that “the entire world contin-ues to be outraged by the appalling violence against theLibyan people.”Regardless of national and internationalpressure, Qaddafi insists that he is loved by his people,going on to condemn the United Nations for not initiat-ing an unbiased investigation into the conflict.

The war has been devastating to the country’s in-tegrity. Thousands of refugees stand in line at theTunisian and Egyptian borders waiting to leave thecountry. Recently, the United States began airlifts ofrefugees, utilizing two military vessels that had recentlyentered the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal.The United States is not the only foreign power to have

aided Libyan refugees. France, which quickly sided with

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(AP)



Libyan protestors celebrate their victory in Benghazi, the birthplace of therevolt against Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi. (Suhaib Salem/Reuters)


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the rebel forces within Libya, sent planes to Benghazi,the revolt’s birthplace, carrying doctors, nurses, andmedical supplies early last week.

Regardless of the support for the rebels, the interna-tional community is hesitant to become more involvedin the conflict. President Obama, Secretary of State Hi-lary Clinton, and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates havebeen careful with their statements referring to possibleAmerican military involvement. The idea of a no-flyzone had been thrown around, but was rejected by Rus-sia, which stated that the move would only do moreharm to the average citizen. Furthermore, there is an in-ternational consensus that Libyans deserve the right tomake their own future, just as those in Egypt and Tunisiadid.

Yet, there have been international successes in limit-ing Qaddafi’s ability to wage war upon his own people.The United States has recently frozen $50 billion in as-sets, the largest amount ever. Furthermore, Europeanbanks and institutions have begun tracking down a fur-ther $20 billion spread throughout Europe.

Besides recently reducing his financial abilities, theUnited States finished a six-year project in 2009 that, ifleft unfinished, would have given Qaddafi the neededflex to turn the Libyan revolts into an international crisis.In 2006, President Bush struck a deal to end the Libyannuclear program. The last of the enriched uranium wasonly removed two years ago. “Imagine the possiblenightmare if we had failed to remove the Libyan nuclearweapons program and their longer-range missile force,”said Robert Joseph, who played a central role in organ-izing the effort in the months just after the invasion ofIraq.While the international community decides what level

of action to take, the battle rages on between Qaddafiloyalist and rebel forces. Tripoli, the capital of Libya andQaddafi’s stronghold, is in a state of terror. “I think thepeople know that if they make any protest now they willbe killed, so all the people in Tripoli are waiting forsomeone to help them,” one resident said. “It is easy tokill anybody here. I have seen it with my own eyes.”Qaddafi is also pushing to loosen the rebel forces’ grip

on many parts of the country. On March 2nd, Qaddafiloyalists, whom the rebel forces call “mercenaries” in ref-erence to their training in the Central African conflictsof the 1990s and early 2000s, stormed the city of Bregaat dawn. They quickly captured the city’s airport and oilrefinery. As night fell, however, the rebel forces, havingreceived reinforcements and heavy artillery from neigh-boring cities, had forced the government fighters from

the city. This battle mirrors the events last week thattook place in the western city of Zawiyah, where rebelforces were able to defend the city from ground forces,mortar shelling, and bombing runs.

The future of Libya is still a major question. In Beng-hazi, the National Libyan Council, the most organizedof the opposition political forces, has called upon theUnited Nations for intervention to stop government airraids against ground forces. The call to the U.N. is to beseen as distinct from foreign intervention, thus allowingthe uprising to remain a pure Libyan effort, though somesay the distinction is superficial at best. Furthermore, the United States has stated that Qaddafi,despite the 2003-09 nuclear dismantling program, is stillin possession of vast quantities of mustard gas. As rebelforces surround Tripoli, Qaddafi has recently pulledhundreds of mercenaries from Mali. If Qaddafi becomestruly entrenched, it is unclear to which actions he willresort to maintain power.

The international community is at a crossroads. Tointervene would be to destroy the purity of the move-ment and risk even more violence, but to do nothing al-lows Qaddafi to continue to practice ruthless repression.For now, at least, world leaders seem to be respondingto the unfolding crisis on a day-by-day basis. At somepoint, however, they will need to make a definitivechoice; expect a tense diplomatic battle. s

In Praise of the WestboroDecision

by Sam Lichtenstein, ‘11Editor-in-Chief

Last Wednesday, the Supreme Court ruled in an 8-to-1 decision that the First Amendment of the Constitutionprotects hateful protests at military funerals. The casearose from a 2006 protest at the funeral of a Marine,Lance Cpl. Matthew A. Snyder, a native of Finksburg,Maryland, who had been killed in Iraq. As they had doneat hundreds of other military funerals, members of theWestboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, appearedwith signs bearing messages such as “God Hates Fags”and “Thank God for Dead Soldiers.”

The church, which has about 75 members, most ofwhom are related either by blood or marriage, protestsat funerals without regard to sexual orientation (Snyder

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was not gay). According to members of the congregation,war casualties are divine retribution from G-d for thecountry’s tolerance of homosexuality. The church alsoblames a variety of other disasters – including the Sep-tember 11, 2001 Attacks and Hurricane Katrina – onwhat its members view as America’s permissive moralsin violation of biblical commands.

In response to the protest at his son’s funeral, the fa-ther of the fallen Marine, Albert Snyder, sued the pro-testors for intentional infliction of emotional distress,among other things. Initially, Snyder won $10.9 millionin compensatory and punitive damages, though a federaljudge in Baltimore later reduced the total damages to $5million. However, in 2009 an appeals court in Richmond,Virginia, overturned that judgment and ruled that Sny-der would instead have to pay $16,000 toward the legalcosts incurred by Fred Phelps, the leader of the church.Last Wednesday’s decision upheld that court’s ruling.Without question, the Supreme Court’s decision tests

the resolve of even the most strident supporters of freespeech because the opinions and actions of the WestboroBaptist Church are so repugnant. The members of thecongregation are hateful fringe elements, who have goneto the most radical extremes to publicize their abhorrentbeliefs. Moreover, it takes the coldest of hearts to not feelempathy for Albert Snyder. He has had to endure intenseemotional distress, yet he has continued to do all he canto honor the memory of his slain son, who made the ul-timate sacrifice in support of his country.

And yet, as much as we may want the above words tomatter, in a court of law they do not – and should not. Inits decision, the Supreme Court upheld the central tenetof the First Amendment: the government has a respon-sibility to remain neutral in the marketplace of ideas.While it may be tempting to search for exceptions to thisrule, courts have historically resisted doing so. We arereminded of many examples, such as Hustler Magazine’sparody of the late evangelist Jerry Falwell having sexwith his mother in an outhouse while drunk or neo-Nazis marching among Holocaust survivors in Skokie,Illinois.

While we may cringe with disgust, we accept theseappalling excesses because they are inseparable from theFirst Amendment’s essential purpose: to guarantee usall the right to speak, rather than allow a privileged eliteto censor that which provokes the most debate. TheConstitution does not take sides in political or religiousdisputes, and it does not allow the government to decidewhich ideas are valuable and which are not. A govern-

ment that breaches that impartiality inevitably violatesa cardinal rule of democracy.

At the same time, as a group of prominent reportersand news media organizations noted in an amici curiaebrief, to ask whether certain speech deserves the protec-tion of the First Amendment misses the mark. Evenhateful ideas may contribute to the marketplace of ideasby giving, as famed philosopher John Stuart Mill said,“clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, pro-duced by its collision with error.” While the WestboroBaptist Church seeks to persuade people of the right-eousness of its clearly revolting beliefs, its callous actionsare more likely to demonstrate how extreme its positionsare and to repulse any rational human being. In this light,we as a country should respond to the church’s crudehomophobia, anti-Americanism, and other disgustingbeliefs by focusing on the well-deserved pride we havein our political ideals and institutions, which continueto inspire the best in all of us.

Ultimately, therefore, we as a people should respectthe Supreme Court’s decision for affirming a basic prin-ciple of our democracy. We live in a complicated country– one in which the loud cacophony of differing opinionscan at times seem overbearing, particularly when thespeech in question is so repellent. Yet, the beauty of theFirst Amendment is that it guarantees the right to freespeech to all of us – not just to those with whom weagree. Taking away that right from people – even thosewhose speech makes our blood boil – robs not only them,but also the rest of us, of our humanity. In a world wherefar too many governments oppress their own peoplewith restrictions on their speech, the decision of thehighest court in the land was a bold affirmation of ourpolitical culture, freedom, and basic humanity. s

OPINION

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(Mario Anzuoni/Reuters)


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Coverage of the Protests: A Reflection ofJournalistic Irresponsibility

byHilary Matfess, ‘14Staff Writer

Recent journalism around the globe has been under-standably dominated by the eruption of protests in theMiddle East and North Africa. While the ample coverageavailable to us is truly a 21st century miracle and themost recent vindication of the potential of communica-tions technology to effect change, it has gotten to thepoint that the website of Foreign Policy included a briefanalysis of the fashion industry’s reaction to the upris-ing.

It seems to me that we have succumbed to a particu-larly pervasive strain of tunnel vision. Coverage of theevents is limited, while virtually eliminating coverage ofany other international events. Even potentially con-nected stories remain unpublished; analysis as to whatthe revolutionary spirit of the region could mean forleaders in unstable states such as Sudan or Cote d’Ivoireis practically non-existent. News about the recent vio-lence in the Abyei region of Sudan is the online equiva-lent of a blurb on A12. All of these shortcomings wouldbe more acceptable if the coverage was, in addition tobeing of critical importance, thorough and original. In-stead, the majority of journalists’ attention is devoted tothe endless repetition of sound bites from challengedleaders.

Rarely discussed is what these nations must do oncethey have deposed their autocratic leaders. Beyond sto-ries focused on the ‘truth’ about the Muslim Brother-hood, discussions of political parties within these statesis extremely limited. A new economy, rife with jobs forthe educated youth of the Middle East and North Africa,is not inherent in a successful revolution; yet few storiesexpound upon ideas for infrastructural revamping. Dis-cussions of political reconstruction are largely absent,save timid predictions of eventual elections. Speculation as to whether President Obama has ‘lost’

Egypt (and other revolutionary states) abounds. Frankly,such journalism is simply lazy; it panders to a societythat assumes ownership where none exists. A nation isnot to be lost, found, kept, or discarded by a foreignpower in this day and age. These stories ignore that theevents in Cairo were not Obama ‘losing’ what he neverhad; they were the people claiming what is rightfullytheirs.

Ideally, coverage of the monumental events sweepingthe Middle East and North Africa would be treated withdue diligence and expertise, would fearlessly delve intothe underlying reasons for the revolutions, would be rifewith firsthand accounts, and would courageously pub-lish an honest reflection of the scholarly confusion as towhat is next for this historically troubled region. But fail-ing that, I hope that those charged with reporting theseevents bear in mind that the revolutions started not as amovement, but an act of desperation and incredible frus-tration. As we celebrate these triumphs of the people, wemust not forget the conditions that prompted such ragein the first place. s

FAS PRESENTS

RICHARD C KOO

Chief EconomistNomura Research Institute

Wednesday, March 97:00 PM in the Glass Pavilion

THOMAS FRIEDMAN

Pulitzer Prize Winning Columnist The New York Times

Thursday, March 108:00 PM in Hodson 110

www.jhu.edu/fas

OPINION

Volume VI, Issue V

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