While trying to deal with the tragedy in Mumbai, I have been wondering what the coverage of the story tells us about ourselves.
I was not surprised by MSM coverage in America: poor in local papers, better in papers with a large desi population or those with an international audience. I was pleased to hear that CNN and CNBC had decent cable news coverage, perhaps because they’re well established in India.
What has baffled me, however, is the relative silence from the world of blogs. The blogosphere is supposed to be the cutting edge, far more advanced than the MSM, yet they’re spending less time on the story.
To be more precise, Technorati’s rankings of popular news stories shows us that average bloggers are paying some attention to the bombings; the fourth, sixth and twentieth most reblogged news stories are the BBC, CNN, and Fox News versions of this story. It’s currently less important than the death of Pink Floyd guitarist Syd Barrett, or coverage of Zidane’s press coverage, but more important than Bob Novak and the big dig.
Where we see a distressing lack of coverage most clearly is amongst political blogs in the top 100 list [Thanks Manish]:
- #5 Daily Kos: no story
- #9 The Huffington Post: short news story, no commentary, just 2 sentences cross-posted from CNN
- #14 Michelle Malkin: Brief post which starts “9/11. 3/11. Now 7/11?”
- #15 Crooks and Liars: 2.5 lines on the subject. However, they do link to a thoughtful analysis elsewhere
- #18 Instapundit: 8 different links to stories
- #43 Talking Points Memo:
NothingA link to this post. [Welcome TPM readers!] - #44 LGF: 3 stories on the subject
- #47 Powerline: Story about Miss Universe (with a photo of Miss Sri Lanka) but nothing on the bombings
- #64 Newsbusters: Nothing
- #75 Captains Quarters: One detailed story with two updates, fairly early on in the news cycle
- #87 Andrew Sullivan: One article a day after, on the spirit of Mumbai
Amongst other major politics blogs, Atrios did a one line link while travelling and WashingtonMonthly covered black hair but not blacker events.
What gives? I emailed the following question to three significant political bloggers:
No opinion on the Mumbai bombings?I’m surprised. Many more have died than did in London a year ago, and the death toll is currently just a little under the death toll from Madrid. Yet the blogosphere is largely quiet. Why?
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Here are the two responses I received:
The blogosphere tends to be relatively quiet on straight news like this, since it doesn’t provide much of a vehicle for opinion mongering. And in this case, it appears (so far) to be related to India-Pakistan tensions, rather than the broader Islamist movement. I suspect most Americans, at any rate, find that sort of uninteresting. [Kevin Drum]I can’t speak for anyone else. But in my case often something of great consequence or human tragedy happens, but it’s not really clear that I have anything to add. Sometimes that gets read as lack of interest or concern. But it’s not. [Anonymous political blogger]
While I understand their desire to only repeat a major news story if they have something of value to add, I think it is (in its own way) as myopic as the confused analysis on Captains Quarters:
What motivated AQ to go after India? It’s hardly the first country one associates with the West, and many Muslims live within the majority-Hindu nation… But mostly AQ and other Islamist terrorists have targeted tourists, and India is in the middle of its tourist season. The Srinagar attack left six tourists dead. AQ wants to destroy India’s economy, fragile enough as it is, by keeping tourists away from the country. [Link]
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p>The story has clear implications for America, they’re just not the very simplest ones. So, for bloggers who need an angle, I’ve got three. The first is a big one [Thanks Hukku]:
“Accordingly, the Pakistani government continues to support the insurgents, although more subtly than before. But what the Musharraf regime and its more intransigent Islamist allies fail to recognize is that Indian patience with Pakistani-sponsored violence in Kashmir and elsewhere in India is nearly at an end. Although largely ignored by the U.S. media, bombings during the festival for the Hindu holiday of Diwali in New Delhi last November, in which Pakistani-based groups were implicated, almost precipitated another major crisis, which was averted only by the Indian leadership’s restraint. But it is far from clear whether such forbearance could survive another attack. Furthermore, in contrast to the 2001-2 crisis, when the Indian military lacked viable plans for responding to a Pakistani-based terrorist attack, the Indian army is now well prepared to undertake swift and decisive action by retaliating against targets in Pakistan at times and places of its own choosing. Unfortunately, the Pakistani leadership appears to be oblivious to India’s growing frustration. Consequently, although another Indo-Pakistani war is not likely, it remains possible…” [Link]
1 India and Pakistan are now nuclear armed states. This sort of attack, if it ends up being traced to Pakistan could have very serious consequences. Couple that with the recent resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan, and British frustrations there, and an argument might be made that Pakistan is engaging in serious destabalization of its neighbors.
Of course, this is all speculation but Indian security sources indicate that they suspect Pakistan had a hand in these events. If that suspicion becomes widespread, won’t there be an outcry for retaliation? If so, will Bush be able (or willing) to protect Pakistan again? Musharaff prepped nukes for use during Kargill (according to Nawaz Sharif), this could get very ugly.
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p>2 On the other hand, if the bombings were actually committed by a new group connected to Al-Qaeda, this marks the opening of a significant new front in the “Global War on Terror”. Al-Qaeda activities are of clear importance to America.
3 These events are pertinent to the domestic fight on anti-terrorism funding. Another mass transit bombing gives credence to Schumer’s argument that DHS is giving too little money to New York. In other words, recent events in India undermine the argument for protecting targets in Indiana.
These recent events are rich in implications for American foreign and domestic policy. I don’t find it too hard to connect the dots, and I don’t think it’s just because I’m brown.
As a Sri Lankan, I felt compelled to click on Powerline’s coverage of Miss Sri Lanka. I guess I shouldn’t have expected anything else, when I found:
“There has been a great deal of interest in Miss Sri Lanka, Jacqueline Fernandez–is that a Sri Lankan name?–who looks ravishing and sounds as though she grew up in Wisconsin.”
Now I for one am actually glad this guy didn’t cover the bombings. Idiot.
Ennis, I couldn’t agree with you more. It’s myopia that prevents people from seeing that the bombing in Mumbai is an international issue. It repeats a pattern of political violence that has been seen elsewhere in the world recently, and that is interconnected in a global sense (regardless of whether Al-Qaeda is involved or not). The motives, strategies, planning, execution of any such incident are baffling at first. This doesn’t mean there isn’t room for rich analysis. Here are some questions of universal relevance that come immediately to mind: how to deal with terrorism? Why is it being escalated at this point? Is there an international conduit for arms and money? What will two nuclear powers do at this point? What has America’s role been in defusing or increasing tensions in South Asia? (Hello). How are people and a city dealing with it at this point?
1) This is probably regional terrorism. It is the same reason that bombings by ETA, the IRA, and Indonesian terror groups get little or no coverage in the U.S. press.
2) Terrorism committed by dark skinned terrorists against light skinned victims “has longer legs” in western media. In this case the terrorists and their victims look the same. Brown on brown violence isn’t as noteworthy.
3) The most popular blogs in the U.S. are political blogs. This story doesn’t (as of now) appear to have a connection to Al-Qaeda and is therefore not useful to the left or right in any type of political spin games. With the London and Madrid bombings there was plenty of material one could use to score political points.
4)India has a very large population. Countries with a large population are viewed by others as being able to “handle” more casualties than smaller countries. It doesn’t make any sense of course but that is how it is. When it is a large “dark-skinned country” then…
Did the Beslan incident get a wide coverage in the MSM ? Most just had a cursory coverage of that too.
I remember seeing images from Beslan on TV frequently. Basayev’s death, on the other hand, got relatively little coverage in the US despite the horrific nature of his crimes. When a major war criminal like that, somebody who went after schools and hospitals, dies, I think it’s front page news.
Tourists don’t ride those trains in Mumbai, do they?
FWIW, there were at least THREE diaries on DailyKos on the subject. I, myself, learned a great deal from the discussion. dKos isn’t Kos. It’s the dKos community.
I think two or more reasons. First most people have nothing to add. It’s not like I would go to a blog for an update when I can get much better information on CNN. On this score I’m surprised Desi blogs didn’t do a better job of being a conduit for the news on the ground over there.
Second, on the geopolitical “analysis” front most people don’t really have a good sense of what is going on so cannot any off the cuff analysis that looks or smells interesting.
India also doesn’t fit into the narrative of either side very easily. It fits into the GWOT in some ways because it has to deal with a terrorism problem but it doesn’t seem terribly supportive of GW’s efforts in Iraq, etc. It’s not like you can “blame” the attacks on support for admin (Madrid/London) or anything specific.
Finally, the folks are brown.
You’re right that bloggers may have had little to add. Still, I think that has to be combined with a sense that the news is distant and not directly connected to explain how little attention is being paid. As for the strategic angles, you might be right. They’re clear to me which is why I’m trying to suggest them, but they may not be clear to others.
BTW, here is an example of some very good coverage in a blog post.
Don’t look for coverage in the western press/blogs of terrorist attacks in India. After all, we are not white-skinned or all Christians.
India and Israel have been fighting Islamic terror long, long before 9/11…
On a sort of related note – for those SM readers outside India, what has been the response from your colleagues? At least in the average software outfit did any of you get past the Howdy, Wazzup with the non-desis?
great question. i’d love to hear too.
Well, on that same technorati list, the Mumbai blasts were 4, 6, 17, and 21. The San Francisco Chronicle had it as their headline today, though the local angle (interviews with Bay Area residents) were certainly prominent. On the more neocon/militaristic side of the political spectrum little green footballs and national review each had a few posts of it.
That said, MSM and blog coverage is far less than that of the Madrid and London bombings, so far, and google trends doesn’t have any data from the last month.
Arun, we’re in agreement. Look at the paragraph before the list. This is what I say:
I saw that World Cup finals viewership in the US was double this year from four years ago. Why? I’d guess it was because all four teams were European and the games were held in Europe.
Ethnocentricism rules, sadly.
It is sad to see, but you are right that it has not gotten more comment from the blogs. I add a couple of observations based on what is showing up in memeorandum. The Israeli-Lebanese fighting escalating into what could be another full-fledged shooting war between Israel and its neighbors, Lebanon and Syria, is pretty big news for the US and the world. The rest of the stories have parochial interest, but have been hotly followed, like Novak and the Plame case, and the debate over Presidential powers. Many more Americans who have traveled abroad (like the MSM) have been to London and Madrid so these places seem more familar to them than Mumbai (and those that know India only vaguely would better recognize the city of Bombay). I agree that one big reason is that there is no hook on who to blame – it makes it hard to fit spin or a narrative around it for a comment. Although I consider myself fairly well aware of world events, I did not know that the Indian-Pakistan relationship had moved towards heightened tension recently; I thought the friendlier relations had been continuing. If more evidence is gathered that implicates Pakistani-related terrorists, you’ll see more commentary with that angle. Also if the rhetoric between the governments heats up, the media and the blogs will remember that both are nuclear powers.
You may also want to wait and see what happens after tonight’s news cycle. With the time differences this news from far away takes longer to seep into the collective.
All that said, India has my seepest sympathies for this tradegy. It hurts as a humna and as a New Yorker, even more.
Outstanding post. There was more discussion on a fantasy football (American) discussion board I’m on than most of the blogs I read.
Which only goes to show that Daily Kos, Huff-po, TPM, Insta and all of these blogs are turning into the MSM.
This is a fine example of something I have been screaming myself hoarse about here in New Orleans: New technology does not make independent or relevant journalism. The content does.
I came to your blog after linking from Josh Marshall’s site. I think you make some really good points here, but as a white American woman, I just wanted to throw in my two cents here.
I listened to coverage on the BBC this morning and had a few thoughts. First off, I was really impressed with the fortitude and courage that many of those interviewed in Mumbai expressed after the bombings. When one gentloeman was asked, Would he stay home and avoid riding the subways? His reply was in effect, Hell no! He wouldn’t give in to fear. Much like the reaction of Londoners last year after the subway bombings.
As a wimpy woman who lives in Pennsylvana, between NYC and Washington DC, I will confess I was scared s**tless after 9/11. Now, five years later, I’m more concerned about our loss of civil liberties than I am of another terrorist attack.
My point is that I think folks in England and India are just, unfortunately, seasoned veterans when it comes to terrorist attacks. Now we Americans need to sober up and face reality too.
As far as the lack of comment by the bloggers, I do think that here in the US, a lot of folks are just “battle weary” from all the horrific news those who bother to read the papers are made aware of daily. Whether it’s Iraq, Israel-Palistine, India, Somalia, Sudan, or Indonesia, there’s so much bad news these days, a lot of folks would just rather stick to discussions about Politics as Usual. Thanks for raising the issue.
BTW, my younger son was born in Vladikavkaz, North Ossetia, so we flew into Beslan in 2002 to adopt him. We followed the news in Sept. 2004 very closely because of our obvious connection. I can assure you the average American has no idea where Beslan is or how many children died there. Chechnya might as well be South America, for all the awareness the average American has with regard to world geography. The only reason the school massacre got any coverage at all here in the U.S. is because so many of the victims were children. No nuance in any of the coverage either. “Islamic militants” were the cause. No effort to explain the history there, that these Chechen militants were originally after independence before being brutalized by Moscow and then joining forces with Islamists. Not excusing anything here, but pointing out that the whole story was poorly communicated in much of the MSM.
Peace
But isn’t SM to an extent guilty of this parochial attitude ? Do we discuss massacres in Africa where hundreds of thousands have been killed ? Places like Rwanda or Darfur don’t cross most of our minds any more than it appears in the MSM in the West or the popular blogs. News stories deemed “irrelevant” to the Desi context are deleted from the news tab. But we have 500+ posts on the Kaavya story in a single thread. Is that any different from my local newscast that spends 10 minutes inanely talking about a cat being rescued from a tree.
The political blogs in the U.S. tend to focus on domestic politics, Al Qaeda and Iraq. If any kind of a link between Al Qaeda and the bombings is shown, coverage in the blogs would pick up. For international news, I use other sources. My political efforts at this time are focused on getting the Bush enablers out of office. The implications for Americans that you list are accurate and frightening. I do care about international affairs but my country is in such disarray that foreign affairs are pushed to the back burner.
You might want to read some blog entries on my blog, although I plan on writing more about it:
http://geekinside1337.blogspot.com
Excellent and thoughtful post.
However, I have to disagree. MSM or not, until India makes this a bigger deal herself, NOBODY needs to think about the implications because there don’t seem to be any! The attacks seem to be increasing in frequency and brazenness and each time there is a sombre line in some analysis about India’s patience being tested and then poof. Nothing. And so it is until the next attack. Bangladesh-based terrorists were suspected of being involved last time (Varanasi bombs earlier this year). Why exactly didn’t India go after them? I doubt America would’ve restrained India – Bangladesh holds no strategic importance for anyone as far as I’m aware. They don’t have nukes. They don’t have a real army. But leave alone Islamic extremists, we can’t even get them to extradite that ULFA leader to India! It’s pathetic.
India has repeatedly sent a clear message that people can attack its citizens with little or no consequence. There simply isn’t much to analyze here.
As evident form Ennis’/Manish’s list, the political dichotomy here is obvious. To add to it, The Nation barely touched it, in great contrast to National Review. Pretty much nothing on Common Dreams.org but Drudge and Realclearpolitcs were right on it, though their coverage was not as all-encompassing as it was for madrid and london as Abhi pointed out in another thread.
Bush has gained considerably from the American left’s inability to even engage in a discussion of the most important issue of our time. It seems as if they view it as an “inconvenient truth,” to steal from Al gore. I remember a similar thing happening when al-Zarqawi was killed. The dems are clearly split and are hoping bush’s screw-up in Iraq will excuse them from presenting a cohesive overarching plan of their own. This from the party that was mostly responsible for giving us the great post wwII doctrines: the Marshall plan, Containment, and MAD.
They’ve left overarching philosophical political thinking to the Neo-Cons.
The local television stations in Hawai’i went a little beyond the canned footage from their networks; they dug up some Asian Studies profs at the University of Hawai’i to discuss the wider implications.
Well, how many of us give that kinda attention to violence in Africa, for instance?
For a lot of us a lot of times (myself included), it’s just like ‘Oh well, those Africans are killing each other. Again. Whatever’. I can completely see why someone in the US or Europe would have a similar attitude towards violence in India.
Huh. I was gonna point this out, and did some hunting to see if it was as true as it seemed. I’m not a regular dKos reader, and I almost never touch Atrios, so it was somewhat surprising to me to see how insular the stories there were; Kos is nearly entirely sewn up in American politics. The rest of the world might not even exist.
As to the bearing this has on the United States, what the hell? I realize I’m an internationalist by birth, born with my two feet planted on different continents, but come ON! Shouldn’t, at the very least, American liberals be sick of American isolationism and pine for familiarity with the rest of the world? This is about as annoying an attitude as coverage of the tsunami that focused on how many white tourists had been killed.
I’m naot saying I agree with this view, but some family members are becoing very anto muslim, while others belive the USA did it, to prevent India becoming a Superpower. Who knows. Either way it was evil.
Oh, come on, Brown (#15). Had Mexico gone further, US TV ratings would have been a lot higher. The World Cup ratings were higher this time because the time slots for live games in Korea and Japan last time around were horrible, like 2 AM, and repeats are a lot less interesting when you know who won.
While there’s an element of truth in claims that Americans care less about events that don’t involve them, or people they identify with, there are a lot more Americans who identify with Mexico than with many European countries.
Thay are simply not interested in us, however as long as the U.S govt. isn’t ignorant to whats happening in India, who cares what the American media or people think. This doesnt directly effect them in any way. The biggest story on CNN.COM is about the accident in Boston yesterday. American media keeps the public here quite ignorant about whats going on in the world. No big surprises.
On a sort of related note – for those SM readers outside India, what has been the response from your colleagues? At least in the average software outfit did any of you get past the Howdy, Wazzup with the non-desis?
in a cubicle guy at a software outfit. bossed (owner) asked me about it. i didn’t know much aside from what i heard on the BBC.
Vikram –
I’m not accusing the MSM or the blogosphere or being parochial, I know it is and accept it. I’m accusing it of being myopic. I think that these events have a clear strategic importance for US interests in the region and am arguing that the bloggers ought to have paid attention to that aspect of the story.
Manju, My point on the other thread was that this was NOT a left/right thing. Both sides are ignoring it pretty equally because it doesn’t allow either side to score any points. I would add that the left (and myself) spends a lot of its time pointing out (and rightly so) that there ARE other issues to discuss besides terrorism. That doesn’t mean that they think terrorism is unimportant. The two great idealogical battles of our time are pro-environment vs. do nothing and anti-terror vs. pro-civil liberties. The first one is clear as far as I’m concerned but the second one has a lot of gray area and should be debated and contested by healthy discussion.
The news was all over the MSM (in US) yesterday. All the channels were showing live footage.. all through the morning. It was the main news in all the nightly new programs.
“The most popular blogs in the U.S. are political blogs. “
Not even close. The most popular blogs in the US are tech blogs like Slashdot and Engadget. Political blogs come in second, but there’s a wide margin there.
“On a sort of related note – for those SM readers outside India, what has been the response from your colleagues? At least in the average software outfit did any of you get past the Howdy, Wazzup with the non-desis?”
one of my siblings is in india. several of their non-indian co-workers in the u.s. e-mailed/rang them to make sure they were ok, even though they weren’t in mumbai. last year after the earthquake in india and pakistan, couple of their ex-professors e-mailed them to express condolences. bbc has many expressions of sympathy from non-indians. it may not be the overwhelmingly important story on everyone’s minds, but there are still many people who cared enough to notice.
I read the stories on the bombing in Mumbai in the NYTimes and the Washington Post with great sorrow; I gave them more study than I gave the London or Madrid bombings because I know London and I don’t know Mumbai.
It’s not because I’m a jerk. The summer before 9/11 I read a book about the Taliban and I skipped the chapter on Al Qaida because I didn’t realize why it was important to an American. I was reading the book because I wanted to understand how American policy had disrupted Afghanistan. We learn as we go. Sometimes ahead, sometimes just in time, sometimes late. Two summers ago I read a number of books on the history of the Middle East – the first I had to read twice, before I could keep the names of people and places straight.
I think Kevin Drum’s final statement was downright stupid. There are disengaged and self-absorbed citizens in every country on Earth. That’s beside the point. The point is bloggers don’t write about what interests other people; they write about what interests themelves and by writing and publishing they hope to interest, educate and influence other people. But you wouldn’t want to read a blogger who didn’t know what he or she was talking about.
So bottom line, I don’t think I couldn’t connect the dots because I’m white; I think it’s because I didn’t know enough. But I’d read your blog to learn more. And if you want to learn more about how Bush lies, distorts, twists and spins, you can read mine.
Honestly, I realized a few days ago while I was listening to the news, and the latest atrocities in Baghdad, I have become numb. Waves of dead bodies on a daily basis, and the permanently/fatally mutilated aren’t even mentioned. It’s exhausting.
$$$ that the media mentions SM in the meta-analysis of the reaction to the action.
I agree with you, but I think that apart from the blogs/bloggers who were already covering the India/Pakistan/Kashmir/global militant Islamic terrorism nexus prior to the Mumbai bombings (ironically this has been discussed on the more politically conservative and “un-PC” blogs and hence persona non grata here by SM standards), to most bloggers, this is just a local incident like the IRA bombings in England back in the 70s and 80s. One would like to hope that bloggers can see the forest for the trees. The Northern Virginia Jihad group was convicted on charges of supporting terrorism in Kashmir, but oddly enough, hardly anyone sees a connection to terrorism in the US and India in the blogosphere in the West.
er…could someone please tell me what MSM is? Thanks!!!
MSM = Main Stream Media, the traditional print and electronic media as distinguished from the blogosphere.
Uh, why would they be guilty of it? They’ve stated their focus hundreds of times, it’s the diaspora and the South Asian nations from whence it came. If there isn’t an explicit desi angle, covering massacres in Africa (or anything else) would be OT.
Hey, that was actually going to be my next post! 🙂
Re brown_fob #34 It is true there was wide mention of the bombings, but for a story of this nature there was truly a lack of depth – examples were folks saying “blasts in India ” rather than Mumbai. Some even said Mumbai was the “capital of India.” Other mentioned the “subway” system. There is a certain “its big but let us get over with it” feel to the presentation. Come on – CNN can’t get interviews with average Bombayites?
I just get tired of the Bombay-Gin-Cincinnati-Bengals syndrome.
I think in India think are a little ill-defined for TV – literally. I mean where does the landscaping begin so we can come in for our slow sepia toned intro?
Have you noticed how Zidane news is on top AFTER the world cup?
BBC has some great word from the street.
Uh, then why find fault with the other blogs who probably think Paris Hilton is a more important subject than the Mumbai massacre ? Since they haven’t stated that India has any angle of interest to them, why accuse them of being myopic ? They have as much right to deem what might be important to SM as being OT on their blogs.
Although it’s not a blog per se, Salon.com has three stories posted about the Mumbai bombings today, making it their main feature. I was so glad to read them, too, as someone who has lived in India and traveled by commuter train many times. Given that India is a democracy and a nuclear power with a history of sectarian tensions of various kinds, you’d think the West would pay more attention. But, no, that would ruin the fantasy of India as the “exotic East.” Sigh.
Abhi:
I don’t think the facts bear this out. Just take a look at the varous Left/right sites. The Nation vs. National review, Huffingtonpost vs. drudge, common dreams.org vs realclearpolitics, talkinpointmemo vs. instapundit, kos vs. LGF.
It obviously plays into themes that would help the right. It shows terrorists always have gripes and that those who stress changing US foreign policy in order to placate them are being shortsighted. “They hate us b/c of our policies” line is just seeing the trees but missing the forest, and an event like this reminds us of the Forrest: they hate all people that are different from them. Also, it reminds people that here has been no major terrorist act on US soil since 9/11.
On this I agree. And that is kinda my whole point.
Look, we can complain about how bloggers and MSM hasn’t covered these events to the extend we’d like. WE may understand why it’s in the US’s benefit to see what is happeneing. But that has a lot to do with our backgrounds as well. We may understand the subtle undercurrents, but do most MSM and bloggers? They just don’t have the background for it. This is natural.
I wonder how well the recent events in Somalia have been covered in the Indian market with a strong surge of Islamists taking control. BBC has decent coverage as usual, but events in Somalia should be of interest to the US market as well as the Indian market. What kind of coverage has it received?
Not much, other than the two guys who were killed for watching soccer on television. And that had more to do with the world cup than someone being killed for entertaining themselves.
Vikram – I was looking at political blogs, most of which usually write extensively on US foreign policy. It’s weird that they’re ignoring this recent, highly salient, event.