Since the Sept. 11 attacks, television and radio stations in tandem with the printed press have been competing for the largest share of the audience all across the world.
In the US, television stations repeatedly broadcast the images of the planes crashing into the World Trade Center as they updated the results of the investigation into who was behind the crime.
Time and Newsweek printed special commemorative issues. The pictures of the victims’ families, and the news of the number of casualties, received universal sympathy.
The scenes of destruction horrified millions — and those millions included Muslims.
However, as soon as the finger began to point in the vague direction of Islamic extremists, the anti-Muslim and anti-Arab campaign began.
That campaign gave rise in the Arabic press to a string of stories about the harassment and mistreatment of Arabs and Muslims in the West. This topic has gradually exhausted itself.
I would suggest that some of the stories published were exaggerations.
However, in newspapers such as The New York Times, Washington Post and Chicago Tribune articles continue to be published which attack our government, our religion, our education and even our daily lives. There has even been criticism of how the Bush administration is dealing with the Saudi government.
And so a new battle has begun: between the Western and Muslim media. Following the news is no longer something we do as a matter of course. Rather, it has become an obsession.
Events taking place in the West, the Middle East, and the Muslim world as a whole have stressed us out.
It is familiar now to see TVs in houses and coffee shops permanently tuned into CNN or Al-Jazeera.
During office hours, employees have been seen visiting news websites to catch up on the latest events.
Afghanistan and anthrax are come up even in the most frivolous social gatherings. The names of reporters who were unfamiliar have now, overnight, become famous.
If we all agree on anything these days, it is the all-pervasive influence of the media. For good or bad, our lives are now dependent on it.