It appears some Egyptians are not pleased with CNN's coverage of last week's coup.
According to numerous sources including CNN senior international correspondent Ben Wedeman, the following sign is appearing in the crowds in Tahrir square:
This picture shows two such signs and one protesting Barack Obama:
This appeared to start Wednesday when a petition surfaced at Causes.com called "CNN...shame on you":
To: CNN
You should be ashamed of yourself. Your coverage of the revolution was totally biased in favor of the MB, just like your Government.
MB of course stands for Muslim Brotherhood. At press time, 39,506 people had signed the petition.
This picture of CNN's logo merged with that of the Muslim Brotherhood seems to support this theory:
NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen observed Sunday:
Based on replies, the "shame on CNN' signs have their origin in CNN calling events a "coup" and a shot of Tahrir mislabeled pro-Morsi crowd.
— Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) July 7, 2013
Blake Hounshell, the deputy editor of Politico, believes this CNN screenshot might be the culprit:
Notice the caption in the upper-right corner reading "Cairo/Pro-Morsy Pr..."
Whatever the cause, the anti-CNN sentiment has impacted Wedeman's reporting:
@sophiaponders I'd love to be but given the hysteria whipped up against cnn, to go there now would not be a wise move. Would you, seriously?
— benwedeman (@bencnn) July 7, 2013
@Metalloy @WaelNawara We did. But from a balcony what do you get? I want to be in crowd but w/"Shame on CNN" signs everywhere reception dark
— benwedeman (@bencnn) July 7, 2013
And the protests have moved to America. CNN's New York headquarters:
Funny how a station nobody watches can evoke so much ire.
(HT Twitchy)