The Usual Suspects

Press coverage of President Bush’s visit to Turkey has focused on the thousands of demonstrators who have turned out to protest. They are generally described as “anti-Bush” protesters; occasionally as anti-NATO. The press coverage universally suggests that President Bush is somehow blameworthy for incurring the ire of these demonstrators.
As the photo below shows, however, the Turkish demonstrators, like others around the world, have a broader agenda than the Iraq war or the current American President.

Press coverage–at least the coverage I’ve seen–also omits to mention that many Turks oppose our Iraq policy because they want to continue oppressing the Kurds in the southern part of Turkey, and fear that the democracy we are establishing in Iraq, in which Kurds will play a prominent role, may encourage the Kurds in Turkey to rebel.
But any suggestion that President Bush may have nobler motives than those who oppose and protest against him doesn’t fit the media’s story line, so coverage and analysis of protests in Turkey and elsewhere are nearly always sanitized.