Covering Islam : how the media and the experts determine how we see the rest of the world

An unusually sharp look at the way in which the U.S. press and experts have dealt with the crisis in the Middle East and Iran. Edward Said takes an unusually sharp and penetrating look at the way in which the experts, the policy-makers and the media have dealt with the crisis in Iran and the Middle East. He shows how our traditional misunderstandings of the outside world have led us to continue to misunderstand events of enormous and immediate importance. Using many examples, COVERING ISLAM demonstrates that the media and the government-business establishment have produced a dangerously misleading and oversimplified portrait of Islam and Muslims, based on ignorance, inaccuracy and prejudice "In this landmark work, for which he has written a new Introduction, one of our foremost public thinkers examines to origins and repercussions of the media's monolithic images of Islam. Combining political commentary with literary criticism, Edward Said reveals the hidden assumptions and distortions of fact that underlie even the most "objective" coverage of the Islamic world. In so doing, Covering Islam continues Said's lifelong investigation of the ways in which language not only describes but also defines political reality."--Jacket In order to make a point about alternative energy sources for Americans, Consolidated Edison of New York (Con Ed) ran a striking television advertisement in the summer of 1980.