Pictures louder than words

Taking a page out of the essential BAG News, I wanted to quickly show some of the dominant, front page newspaper images which are shaping Arab views towards the Lebanon crisis - particularly in the key anti-Hezbollah Arab states (Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt).  I'm not even going to talk right now about al-Jazeera, which is dominating the media landscape right now for better or for worse (several of its most popular on-air personalities are now broadcasting live from Beirut).  These are the pictures appearing on the front page, above the fold, of some of the key Arab newspapers:

Al-Ahram:  the leading, pro-government Egyptian paper

Al-Rai: the leading, pro-government Jordanian newspaper

Al-Watan:  Saudi Arabia

Even the website of the Saudi al-Arabiya TV (whose coverage has generally followed the official Saudi line against Hezbollah and Iran - though I should note that its internet feed has been down for a while now, and their website is rarely updating) has been featuring this photo on the top of the page all morning:

Al-Arabiya

Al-Ahram and al-Rai are not opposition newspapers:  each is the widest circulation, semi-official, pro-government paper in a key member of the anti-Hezbollah Arab alignment.  In both papers, the visual motif is of wounded and/or frightened Lebanese children... who seem to be looking out imploringly at the Arab reader, begging for help.  The juxtaposition of images in the Saudi al-Watan above is quietly devastating, given the official Saudi position (the tamer al-Riyadh opts to show only the diplomacy image, without the image of children).    I wonder how long the Saudi-Jordanian-Egyptian anti-Hezbollah axis can withstand these kinds of visuals - all evidence is that Arab public opinion is heating up and is not amused by their stance.  Even the Saudis have recently been issuing some defensive statements about their  concerns for the Lebanese people, and I'm hearing louder appeals for a fast ceasefire coming out of regime-friendly voices in Amman. 

The same focus on children can be found on the front page of the Arab nationalist al-Quds al-Arabi - though here note that instead of wounded children in a hospital, we see what appear to be fleeing refugees... who, the visual suggests, might still be helped by rapid action.  It isn't too late for them.

Al-Quds al-Arabi

The only exception I found to the "suffering Lebanese children" motif came, predictably, in the Saudi al-Sharq al-Awsat, which has been the leading anti-Hezbollah voice in the Arab press:

Al-Sharq al-Awsat's choice of pictures seems to be intended to convey that "resistance is futile".  (Tareq al-Homayed, editor of al-Sharq al-Awsat, still doesn't seem to have come to grips with the official Saudi semi-reversal on Iran, so instead devotes his column today to bashing his real enemies: Qatar and al-Jazeera.) 

Comments

[entlord]

Not only the Lebanese press but also the Dubai press and, of course, Iranian and Palestinian Press are "waving the bloody shirt" but the continual barrage of images of dead children has to enrage any viewer, which is one reason for the present gulf between American and Arab publics since the American public is only shown the remnants of buildings or twisted car frames. The image of a young boy, eviscerated by a blast with both legs blown away being laid in a blanket by rescue personnel remains poignant.

[Abu Sinan]

Ah well, Tariq's wife just had a baby, maybe it is keeping him up at night? The Saudi establishment is all over the place on this, so why not have a go at Qatar and al Jazeera over the issue?

Tariq just writes what he is told to. No different from any other Saudi owned paper's editor.

[G Dawg]

These same papers show pictures of injured Israeli children blown up by sucide bombers too right?

[Marc]

These pictures are actually no worse than what's been in Newsweek. They didn't put it on the cover, but a recent issue had a picture of a dead bloody child with limbs akimbo lying dust-covered in the rubble. Although perhaps it's the exception that proves the rule-- it definitely caught my attention, because I had not seen its like elsewhere in the US media.

[Gohoynki]

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