Saudi prince charmed media
In June 2018 it was big news that Saudi Arabia had ended its ban on women drivers.
Credit was given to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, on whom King Salman, his ailing father, had bestowed control of the country.
News stories said this was just one of the sweeping reforms spearheaded by the prince, now 33.
MBS, as he is known, was often treated as a Prince Charming by the U.S. news media.
Unfortunately, his not-so-charming side was played down.
That changed when it seemed MBS might have been behind the disappearance and possible murder and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi after the dissident Saudi journalist entered Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, on Oct. 2.
Khashoggi, a 59-year-old U.S. resident, had written opinion pieces for The Washington Post harshly critical of the crown prince.
After issuing inconsistent statements and conducting an investigation, the Saudi government announced late last week that Khashoggi had been strangled following a fistfight in the consulate and that 18 men had been arrested, including a close aide to the crown prince and high-ranking intelligence officers.
Once praised as a “youthful reformer,” MBS is currently presented in the media as a “ruthless royal,” wrote Jim Rutenberg, “Mediator” columnist for The New York Times.
These are among the crown prince’s reforms that were given glowing coverage by the U.S. news media:
Powers of the religion police — enforcers of the kingdom’s ultra-conservative form of Sunni Islam — were restricted.
Women were welcomed in the workforce and allowed to attend public concerts by a female singer and a sports event.
A program was begun to diversify the economy in non-oil sectors, such as technology and tourism.
Six months ago, journalists accompanied MBS on a good-will tour of the United States.
He met President Donald Trump and hobnobbed with media moguls such as Sergey Brin, CEO of Google, Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon and owner of The Washington Post, Michael Bloomberg and Rupert Murdoch.
Receiving less attention then were manifestations of the “ruthless royal.” Here are examples:
Leading Saudi businessmen and political figures, including members of MBS’s own family, were arrested.
Saudi Arabia intervened in the Yemeni civil war, killing thousands of civilians with bombs purchased from the U.S.
A rising number of dissenters and human-rights activists were detained.
Saudi Arabia threatened nearby Lebanon and neighboring Qatar.
“There’s a streak in American journalism to allow glittering narratives about budding authoritarians to obscure less appealing facts,” wrote New York Times columnist Rutenberg.
He noted that Bashar al-Assad once was presented to news consumers “as a next-gen ruler ready to open Syria to American tech.”
Aung San Suu Kyi, civilian leader of Myanmar, was likened to the late Nelson Mandela, who fostered racial reconciliation in South Africa.
Although awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, she seems indifferent to the persecution of her country’s Muslim minority.
Two Reuters reporters were sentenced to seven years in prison for investigating a massacre of Rohingva Muslims.