Obama’s seven tensions in five editorials
On Thursday 4 June, Barack Obama addressed more than one thousand Egyptian students at Cairo University on the subject of US-Muslim relations. Billed as his most important foreign policy speech since taking office, the US president set out to heal the deep rift between his country and the Islamic world. The following day, each of the five daily broadsheets published an editorial in response.
All five newspapers approved of Obama’s tone and delivery of the speech. It was described as ‘brilliant’ by the Financial Times, ‘pitch-perfect’ by The Independent, with The Times commenting that ‘few speeches have been as carefully crafted, as powerfully delivered’. The Guardian claimed that 'he succeeded spectacularly', while The Telegraph said that the US president 'demonstrated a mastery of political oratory in the tradition of Demosthenes.'
The US president addressed seven clearly defined tensions in US-Muslim relations:
1. Violent extremism
2. Situation between Israelis, Palestinians and the Arab world
3. Rights and responsibilities of nations on nuclear weapons
4. Democracy
5. Religious freedom
6. Women’s rights
7. Economic development and opportunity
An analysis of all the broadsheet editorials from Friday 5 June revealed how frequently these seven tensions were addressed. The table above illustrates the distribution of these seven topics among the publications.
Key findings were:
- None of the editorials mentioned ‘rights and responsibilities of nations on nuclear weapons’ (Iran’s nuclear programme) or ‘economic development and opportunity’
- None of the articles reflected on all seven subjects
- The only topic that was discussed in every piece was the ‘situation between Israelis, Palestinians and the Arab world’ with each addressing the issue of Israeli settlements
- Only The Times and Financial Times mentioned ‘democracy’
- Only The Independent and Financial Times mentioned ‘women’s rights’
- ‘Violent extremism’ (the first on Obama’s list) and ‘religious freedom’ were mentioned only by the Financial Times.
These findings demonstrate the priority awarded by the British broadsheets to the Israeli-Palestinian and Israel-Arab conflicts regardless of where publications position themselves on the political spectrum. In particular, they show how Israeli settlements are universally cited as a major issue in US-Muslim relations.
To a certain extent this reflects the emphasis of the president’s speech: Obama spoke more about Israel and the Palestinians than any of the six other policy issues. However, violent extremism topped his list of priorities and yet this topic was only mentioned in one out of five articles.
10 June 2009