As Americans

As Americans, we believe that world events over the next few years will unfold from September 11th. The safety and security that we all felt before will never be the same. While Americans continue to recover our enemies continue to plan a way to bring us to our knees once again. Many of us will never again be able to fly without a fear of what if and many of us will never again be able to turn on the morning news without the fear of what if. We tend to have the attitude that terrorist attacks are events that happen in other countries like Israel where peace is unsteady. Many of us never dreamed of having it in our own front yard and to compound those affects by seeing parts of the world celebrating at the sight of a super power falling to its knees.

While the attacks themselves are a focal point for many scholars, I will focus not on the attacks, but rather I will ask questions as to why the attacks happened and why it hurt so much to see others smile happily at the sight of our pain. Americans are shocked to see that others would ever wish us pain. Much of this is taught to us at an early age, that everyone wants to be American and that the "American Dream" is the only way to live a full and happy life.

What role does the media play in continuing this naivetÐ"© of American society and how does the media in other countries account for our pain? How does our super power mentality play in this picture and why do many citizens of the world feel ill will towards Americans? I will address these questions by reviewing foreign newscasts and magazine articles, interviewing international politics experts, and finally interviewing an expert in American foreign policy. As citizens in a democracy we deserve the truth. The truth about how our government treats citizens of other countries and other accounts of how bad U.S. Foreign Policy creates negative feelings towards American citizens themselves.

To understand how the American media plays into a bigger picture of the foreign media it is important to understand how they both operate. In The Politics of Illusions by Lance Bennett he writes about notable media differences. Lance writes:

A fascinating example of how these work routines affect news content was discovered by Timothy Cook in a study of Gulf crisis coverage in the United States and France. Immediately following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, television networks assigned their reporters to get reactions from key sources. American newscasts flipped through the "golden triangle" of Washington news beats: the White House, State Department, and Pentagon. Since the invasion had just occurred, there was no official reaction to be had. However, the reporters were pressured to say something, and they effectively invented the kinds of vague pronouncements that one might expect from officials in sensitive political posts at the early stage of world crisis. By contrast, French reporters (who do not operate on U.S.-style beat system) interviewed various political party leaders and generated a comparatively broad range of political views about the meanings and implications of the invasion. (Bennett 119)

To understand that most U.S. reporters not only have lost sight of real journalism is to also realize that those same reporters sometimes knowingly hide the truth beneath many lays of non-important information.

The reporter and political official relationship is set to operate off one another. The politics could never play out without the reporters but on that same side the politics could never play out without a reporter willing to report what the political official wants to be heard. A politician's public fate often lies in the trustworthiness of a reporter. Lance talks about how fragile this relationship is by stating, "When those sources are powerful officials surrounded by an entourage of eager reporters clamoring for news, it is always possible that those who report what officials want them to will be rewarded while those who fail to convert key political messages into news will be punished." (Bennett 120)

Foreign policy encompasses more than war and peace, it also has to tackle economic problems and globalism issues, foreign trade, international investment, and foreign aid are all an integral part of this system. In conjunction with NATO and the United Nations, most of American foreign policy is now focused on peacekeeping. And many debates over foreign and national security issues continue to be drawn along left-right lines. But who draws these lines and who is really in charge of American foreign policy, the President or the press?

The media plays a crucial role in the formulation of U.S. foreign policy. While the President is often the leader externally of foreign policy, he realizes he is a co-equal partner with the media, and this is essential to ensure that policy will succeed. If the media dislikes policy adopted by the President it limits its success and also limits the support given to the President by the American people.

Public debate on the national interest and goals of foreign policy is vital if practical and logical policy is to be formulated. Unfortunately, most of the time this debate does not appear on the news unless it is directly conducted from politicians themselves. While the press does cover stories and give some detail they cannot actually participate in the debates most of the time. This makes particular sense for those reporters assigned to the executive branch because of the career risks in directly opposing presidential intentions. (Berry 145)

To relate the media directly to our case study we should look at a specific example being broadcast from the Middle East. Most Americans receive their news from privately owned television stations while in the Middle East almost all television station there are government owned and regulated. So the people hear what the government wants them to hear. Since September 11th American's see a lot of reporting coming from a station called Al-Jazeera. Al-Jazeera is the exception to the rule. It is broadcast out of Qatar, in the Persian Gulf. The station is targeted to its Arab neighbors and Arab speakers around the world, including the United States. Al-Jazeera makes sure that the Arab view is heard, but it also reports news that is unwelcome to Arab governments. As New York Times reporter John Kifner wrote, "In a part of the world where news has always been the news the government wants, true or not, Al-Jazeera is truly a phenomenon." (Kifner B7)

Now that we have a brief introduction as to how the media operates in general pertaining to policy and the government, it is important to look at why these other countries sometimes express hatred towards the U.S. While hate coming from anyone can always cover a broad range, in its simplest form, hatred towards America