Headline today in the NY Times.

Arab Media Focus on Voting, Not Violence

A good article actually, lots of reporting, quotations, sources given, laying out the story well. I just can’t help noting that the tone of the piece is that they are surprised, surprised that people might focus on the vote rather than the violence.

Violence and bombings are not uncommon in the Arab World, the Lebanon, Algeria, Syria (Assad Senior curtained off a town and shelled it flat with his tanks, for example),  Egypt, Kurds in various countries, Saudi recently, Yemen, there’s quite a list. Free open and democratic elections, now those are a little more rare. Iraq yesterday….how many others in recent years? How many others in recent decades? Perhaps Lebanon in years gone by, Tunisia maybe (? really not sure of that one), just can’t quite put my finger on many others.

So which is the news story? The violence or the election? The NY Times is surprised that news organisations focus on the one that doesn’t make GWB look bad?