CBS News’ 60 Minutes (11/19/17) "in depth" reporting of the Yemen humanitarian crisis did not once mention the direct role the United States played in creating, perpetuating and prolonging a crisis that’s left over 10,000 civilians dead, 2 million displaced, and an estimated 1 million with cholera.
The US media frequently ignore America's role in the conflict altogether. Correspondent Scott Pelley does not once note that the US assists Saudi Arabia’s bombing campaign with logistical support, refueling and the selling of arms to the tune of $400 billion. Nor that the US diplomacy also routinely protects Saudi Arabia at the UN from condemnation—a shield that may have vastly prolonged the war, given that it signals the support of the most powerful country on Earth. Saudis’ primary patrons, the United States and Britain and Canada are simply not mentioned.
Iran’s involvement in the conflict—which, even by the most paranoid estimates, is far less than the United States’—is placed front and center as one side of the “war.” The conflict is framed in hackneyed “Sunni vs Shia” terms, with Saudi Arabia unironically called the “leader of the Sunni world” and Iran the “leader of the Shia world.” A reductionist narrative that omits that Sunnis have fought alongside the Houthis, and the fact that Saudi bombs kill members of the marginalized, mostly Sunni Muhamasheen caste, who are neither “led” by Saudi Arabia nor part of the “Shia world.” It is presented as a purely regional conflict, and not one sanctioned and armed by major Western superpowers to counter “Iranian aggression.” The war is shown in the media as irrational sectarian Muslims in a cycle of violence.
The Washington Post ran an editorial (11/8/17) and an explainer piece (11/19/17) detailing the carnage in Yemen, neither one of which bothered to mention US involvement. American complicity in the war is so broad in scope, it merited a warning last year from the US’s own State Department they could be liable for war crimes—yet it hardly merits a mention in major media accounts.
60 Minutes doesn’t just omit the US role in the war, it paints the US as a savior rescuing its victims. The hero of the piece is American David Beasley, the director of the UN’s World Food Programme, the organization coordinating humanitarian aid. “The US is [the World Food Programme]’s biggest donor, so the director is most often an American. Beasley was once governor of South Carolina.”
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2017/11/20/ignoring-washingtons-role-yemen-carnage-60-minutes-paints-us-savior
The US media frequently ignore America's role in the conflict altogether. Correspondent Scott Pelley does not once note that the US assists Saudi Arabia’s bombing campaign with logistical support, refueling and the selling of arms to the tune of $400 billion. Nor that the US diplomacy also routinely protects Saudi Arabia at the UN from condemnation—a shield that may have vastly prolonged the war, given that it signals the support of the most powerful country on Earth. Saudis’ primary patrons, the United States and Britain and Canada are simply not mentioned.
Iran’s involvement in the conflict—which, even by the most paranoid estimates, is far less than the United States’—is placed front and center as one side of the “war.” The conflict is framed in hackneyed “Sunni vs Shia” terms, with Saudi Arabia unironically called the “leader of the Sunni world” and Iran the “leader of the Shia world.” A reductionist narrative that omits that Sunnis have fought alongside the Houthis, and the fact that Saudi bombs kill members of the marginalized, mostly Sunni Muhamasheen caste, who are neither “led” by Saudi Arabia nor part of the “Shia world.” It is presented as a purely regional conflict, and not one sanctioned and armed by major Western superpowers to counter “Iranian aggression.” The war is shown in the media as irrational sectarian Muslims in a cycle of violence.
The Washington Post ran an editorial (11/8/17) and an explainer piece (11/19/17) detailing the carnage in Yemen, neither one of which bothered to mention US involvement. American complicity in the war is so broad in scope, it merited a warning last year from the US’s own State Department they could be liable for war crimes—yet it hardly merits a mention in major media accounts.
60 Minutes doesn’t just omit the US role in the war, it paints the US as a savior rescuing its victims. The hero of the piece is American David Beasley, the director of the UN’s World Food Programme, the organization coordinating humanitarian aid. “The US is [the World Food Programme]’s biggest donor, so the director is most often an American. Beasley was once governor of South Carolina.”
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2017/11/20/ignoring-washingtons-role-yemen-carnage-60-minutes-paints-us-savior
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