Friday, May 8, 2009

The US media's coverage of Mexico

I wanted to find a way to demonstrate to myself and others the tone of the US media with respect to Mexico. I'm not doing anything majorly scientific here, just trying a few different Google searches to see what the results are.

Let's see what happens when we Google "world health organization praises mexico" Ok, here's the sources of the first ten responses to that search;

1. telegraph.co.uk UK "WHO praises Mexico's response to virus "
2. health.mashget.com India "Mexico's professionalism, responsibility and transparency"
3. english.people.cn China "praised Mexico's professionalism"
4. sploid.com Blog "WHO praises Mexico's response"
5. javno.com Croatia "WHO has praised the Mexican government"
6. Delewareonline.com First US site "Mexico's reaction draws praise from experts"
7. Boston.com US site local news "Harvard Dean praises Mexico's response"
8. Japantimes "Mexican ambassador praises aid"
9. comcast US site "Obama praises vets" "Mexico citizens stay home"
10. new yorkblips "The Obama administration is winning praise"

Huh. From that search you would think that the US didn't have many websites at all. The two largest of the group above weren't about Mexico's accolades at all. Wierd. Lets see what happens when we search "mexico blamed for swine flu"

1. Foxnews.com "people in Mexico were dying of flu-like symptoms "
2. Msnbc.com "Americans who got swine flu had traveled to Mexico"
3. Pontealdia.com "U.S. Immigrants, Mexico Blamed For Swine Flu"
4. Cathnews.com "US priest blames swine flu on Mexico abortion laws"
5. Time.com "Don't blame the pig"
6. Huffingtonpost "Conservatives blame immigrants"
7. Globalresearch.ca "Blamed on Industrial Farming in Mexico?"
8. Mediamatters.org "media figures blaming Mexican immigrants"
9. Amazilia.com "Blame it on NAFTA"
10.negociosempresa "Conservative media baselessly blame swine flu outbreak on immigrants"

Hmmm. With a search regarding the WHO praising Mexico's performance during the crisis, the largest US media outlet represented that actually did repeat the WHO's sentiment was either delewareonline or boston.com. The other two US sources actually were running articles praising the US response. Now, when we search something like "Mexico blamed for swine flu" we get responses from some slightly bigger US players. Fox News, Huffington Post, Time, Mediamatters even MSNBC.

What fascinates me the most about this unscientific little experiment is that Mexico did do it right. They approached the WHO 8 days before the WHO responded with an advisory. They shut down schools and services and did an amazing job of containing the spread of the disease. Why wasn't that news to the major US media outlets? The articles blaming Mexico for the disease seemed to make the cut with FOX, MSNBC and the others even though Mexico is no more to blame for their outbreak than the US or the Phillipines was for their outbreaks.

The above example illustrates the need for this site's quest for non-biased research and data on the news surrounding Mexico, no?

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