Yemen Breaking: "Islamic Militants" Occupy the New York Times

Photo: Hani Mohammad (AP)UPDATE 1930 GMT: The Times has an article with a different approach this afternoon, "Yemen Battles Opponents on Two Fronts". While the reference to "Islamist militants" remains, this at least is set alongside the developments in Taiz:

"The Yemeni government ratcheted up its violent response to opponents on two fronts Monday, pounding a major coastal city with airstrikes aimed at dislodging Islamic militants, and smashing the country’s largest antigovernment demonstration in overnight clashes that killed more than a dozen protesters, according to witnesses reached by phone."

So what happens to the priorities of "Western" reporting when the spectre of "Islamist militants" arises?

Exhibit A from The New York Times, which headlines on the occupation of Zinjibar in Yemen by 300 insurgents, "Islamists Seize a Yemeni City, Stoking Fears". (The lead photograph (see left) of armed men is not actually of "Islamists" in Zinjibar, but of "tribesman" in the capital Sana'a, if you can read the small-font caption.)

The reporting devotes 18 of 24 paragraphs in today's round-up of Yemen to those Islamist militants, with the "fall of the coastal city of Zinjibar to self-styled holy warriors". The article emphasises: "American officials have expressed alarm that the group has been allowed a freer hand in Yemen since the turmoil began, and have reported a stream of Qaeda operatives making their way to Yemen from other parts of the world to join the fight there."

Other significant events (see today's LiveBlog) are relegated to the margins. Only in two paragraphs in the middle of the article does the Times note "gunfire and shelling...in the capital" and the killing of four (the number is now six) protesters in Taiz. The final four paragraphs return to the battle between President Saleh and opposition tribes.

The silver-lined irony of the article --- either mischievously inserted by the two reporters or passing them by --- is the insertion of this note:

Gregory Johnsen, a Yemen analyst at Princeton University, said that Mr. Saleh “has certainly exaggerated the Al Qaeda threat throughout the years,” finding that foreign aid increases when the threat appears to be higher.