A Jordanian journalist spoke to students on Tuesday, Sept. 13 about the role and perception of the United States in the Middle East.
Salameh Nematt, the Washington, D.C. bureau chief of the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper, was invited by Tufts' chapter of Americans for an Informed Democracy (AID). This is the first year that the University has had such a chapter.
"The reason why there is vicious anti-Americanism in the Middle East is that the U.S. is perceived as this big evil," Nematt said.
He said the U.S. often tolerates corrupt regimes if they fall in line with American foreign policy. He pointed to the relaxation of U.S. pressure on Libya after its leader, Moammar Qaddafi, admitted having a nuclear weapons program last year.
Nematt also discussed the role Middle Eastern oil plays in U.S. policy. "For a country that consumes one-quarter of the world's oil, you cannot ignore that part of the world," he said. He said oil "carries the lifeline of the Western economy, particularly the U.S."
The U.S. imports about 60 percent of its oil. One-third of these imports come from the Middle East.
Nematt, who also reports for LBC, a Lebanon-based satellite channel, addressed how U.S. policy in the Middle East is covered by regional media, and how Middle East issues are covered in American media.
Much of the media in the Middle East is "controlled by dictatorships," he said. "The truth has become the victim. We are not having a real debate about America's status as super power."
Nematt said U.S. media tend to sensationalize events in the Middle East. "You only have crisis coverage of Middle Eastern affairs," he said. "The U.S. could play a major role in portraying the corruption and the tyranny of these regimes."
He also gave his perspective of political bias. "The U.S. media is divided along political lines," he said. "Most of the media is either aligned with the conservative right or the liberal left, and there is no middle ground."
A study released in June by the Pew Research Center found similar feelings among U.S. citizens. In the nationwide poll of about 1,500 adults, 60 percent of respondents said the American media is politically biased.
Senior Jessica Harris, one of the founders of the Tufts AID chapter, said the group plans to expand their programming to include Medford and Somerville residents.
The national organization, founded three years ago by a former Princeton University student, is organizing town hall meetings with prominent Arabs and U.S. policy-makers across the country.
Harris said the group is designed to educate Americans about foreign policy. AID "tries to foster understanding both in America and abroad," she said.
The group is also working on issues such as global development, the environment, and the re-building effort after last year's Asian tsunami.
