The media, Muslims and Trump’s travel ban
As US borders tighten, we trace the media narratives on immigrants, refugees and Muslim ‘Others’.
On The Listening Post this week: As US borders tighten, we trace the media narratives on immigrants, refugees and Muslim “others”. Plus, how one of France’s richest men is colonising the media.
Much of the mainstream media have expressed outrage at US President Donald Trump’s travel ban. But, look back over a decade of American reporting, and it’s not hard to spot the role the media played in building anti-Muslim sentiment in the United States – a fear the new White House is capitalising upon now.
Contributors: Wajahat Ali, journalist; Elisabeth Anker, author, “Orgies of Feeling: Melodrama and the Politics of Freedom;” and Sydney Brownstone, journalist.
On our radar:
• When a mass shooting at a mosque in the Canadian city of Quebec left six people dead, American right-wing network Fox News was quick to play the blame game – wrongly naming a Moroccan Muslim as the suspect.
• After almost 15 years, some form of justice was finally served for murdered Colombian journalist Orlando Sierra, as one of his killers was captured at the US-Mexico border.
• Turkish exiled journalist Can Dundar has seen his new website – a news outlet aimed at Turkish and German audiences – blocked by Turkish authorities, before it started to publish any news.
The Bollore media empire:
France’s billionaire tycoon, Vincent Bollore, is buying media networks to wield influence not just in Europe, but around Africa. Talking us through the story are two journalists who have either been censored or taken to court by Bollore: Jean-Baptiste Rivoire, investigative journalist, “Special Investigation” and Tristan Waleckx, journalist, France 2. Also speaking to us are Julia Cage, author of “Saving the Media: Capitalism, Crowdfunding, and Democracy” and Patrick Eveno, media scholar, Sorbonne University.