There is a monumental battle of the wills happening in Egypt. There is also the creeping, crassest of attitudes circulating among a minority of casual observers, a fatigue, like the weariness that exculpated some people's consciences over natural disasters and other unseemly catastrophes. I have a lot of sympathy for the struggle and for the dangling disappointment and hope.
This standoff could go on and on. Moreover, events like these really illustrate journalistic integrity, slacking vigilance or otherwise. The protest grounds are not necessarily over-crowded with the press, but those who are there are doing a good job and blurring the distinction between the aloofness of reporting and being in and of the moment, which along with citizen-journalism, transfixes the scene and admonishes us of the stakes and what is at issue. The bigger dilemma seems often bringing the reporting to the audience, and though there are virtually unlimited vehicles of delivery, it astounds me how much the media, the visible advertising space, shunts what's in depth off to the side, or when it is
not even available in competitive formats. I understand such prime real estate is at a premium, but there is a demand for good coverage and due exposure. Further, events like this--maybe significantly and for the first time, also are very telling of who is in the know and who is brokering power. Predictions and speculation have been proved to be just that. Mostly, no one likes to claim influence-peddling or king-making
in media res, but one is accustomed to attributing such abilities or at least intelligence, prescience to certain powers, despite proof of dwindling capital.
