A MintPress News study focusing on major US media outlets’ coverage of the Yemeni Red Sea blockade has found a wide bias in the press, as the latter described the blockade as an aggressive, hostile act of terrorism by Ansar Allah, while also painting them as tools for the Iranian government and simultaneously presenting the US as the victim being dragged into war. 

The study, conducted on four leading American outlets: The New York Times, CNN, Fox News, and NBC News showed that these outlets, together, pave the way for the rest of the media system introducing a certain rhetoric representing the corporate media spectrum in its entirety. The term "Yemen" was used in the Dow Jones Factiva global news database to collect the fifteen relevant articles published between December 2023 and January 2024 from each of the mentioned outlets, a total of 60 articles, to be read and studied.

The study concluded that US media paint a deceiving manipulated perception for the benefit of US imperialism. One example is the use of the word "Houthis" rather than "Ansar Allah" in all 60 articles in the study. The purpose is to paint the movement badly and as Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, Head of Yemen’s Supreme Revolutionary Committee described it to MintPress "an attempt to frame the broad masses in Yemeni society that belong to our project."

Almost half the articles studied, 22 out of 60, did not present Ansar Allah as a governmental force. The New York Times described them as a “tribal group”, CNN as a “ragtag but effective” rebel organization, and NBC News as a “large clan” of “extremists”. Fourteen articles took it more seriously in serving the US government rhetoric about Ansar Allah and using the word “terrorist”. 

US corporate media outlets attack Iran too

59 of the 60 articles studied stressed to readers that the Yemeni group is supported by Iran, pointing fingers at Tehran. This was repeated many times, to the extent a reader would think that Ansar Allah’s official name was the “Iran-backed Houthis,” according to MintPress. One CNN round-up used the phrase (or similar) seven times, a Fox News article six times, and an NBC News report five times. 

The title of one Fox News report, for instance, read “U.S.-U.K. coalition strike Iran-backed Houthi targets in Yemen after a spate of ship attacks in the Red Sea,” its subheadline stated, “Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi militants have stepped up attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea in recent weeks,” and its first sentence read: “The United States and Britain carried out a series of airstrikes on military locations belonging to Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen early Friday in response to the militant group’s ongoing attacks on vessels traveling through the Red Sea.” All of these surpass the use of the term solely but also direct the entire narrative focus on Ansar Allah being supported by Iran attempting to indicate that the group's actions are orchestrated by Iran and serve as its tool. 

The New York Times is one of the outlets that even suggested that Iran is building an international terror network or constructing an atomic bomb.

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“The U.S. needs to strike Iran, and make it smart,” ran the (since changed) title of a Washington Post editorial. “The West may now have no option but to attack Iran,” wrote John Bolton, who is part of a group called United Against Nuclear Iran, in the pages of The Daily Telegraph.

Masking

“US-backed Saudi Arabia” or “America-backed Israel” are terms never used by the mentioned outlets, knowing very well that Washington backs both up, providing them with diplomatic, military, and economic support. Since October 7 alone, the Biden administration has invested more than $14 billion in the occupation forces, has sent a fleet of warships to the Middle East, and blocked diplomatic efforts to stop the Israeli genocide against Gaza. 

As for Riyadh, its entire existence in its current form is due to US support, which has sold tens of billions of dollars worth of weaponry to Riyadh, helping it convert its oil profits into security. From 2014 to 2023, Saudi Arabia led a US-backed coalition force against Yemen, which executed a massive bombing campaign against civilian targets in Yemen, including farms, hospitals, and sanitation infrastructure. 

The US supported Saudi Arabia completely and sold it at least $28.4 billion worth of arms, according to a MintPress study. In 2021, the Biden administration stated it would only sell the kingdom “defensive” technology, which ended up including shipments of cruise missiles, attack helicopters, and support for gunships.

Only five of the 60 articles mentioned US support for Saudi Arabia, and none at all for "Israel". Only six articles mentioned US support for the Saudi onslaught against Yemen – and none featured the fact as dominantly as they did with Iranian support for Ansar Allah.

These outlets attempted to manipulate the truth behind why Ansar Allah is blockading the Red Sea, which is in support of Palestine and as a form of humanitarian action, and paint it as pure "terrorism."  In one article, CNN wrote that “The Iran-backed Houthis have said they won’t stop their attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea until the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza ends.”

US a 'neutral and honest actor'

The exact outlets have perpetually presented the United States  as a "neutral and honest actor" in the Middle East, on the verge of being “sucked” into another war against its will. As the New York Times wrote, “President Biden and his aides have struggled to keep the war contained, fearful that a regional escalation could quickly draw in US forces.” The Times informed readers that there was a profound “reluctance,” from Biden to strike Yemen, but he had been left with “no real choice” but to do so.

This further serves the distorted image the US has always tried to paint of it being the victim. Some other examples are “How America Could Stumble Into War With Iran,” by The Atlantic; “Trump could easily get us sucked into Afghanistan again,” Slate expressed; “What It Would Take to Pull the US Into a War in Asia,” Quartz told readers.

Influence

All of the above-mentioned is a result of structural and ideological factors deeply rooted within corporate media, MintPress explained. The New York Times is committed to Zionism as an ideology, and its writers on the Middle East are not objective actors but rather main influencers in the ongoing displacement of Palestinians. It owns property in West al-Quds that was stolen from the family of writer Ghada Kharmi during the 1948 Nakba, and many of its writers have expressed support for "Israel", as anyone who believes otherwise would be fired. 

Fox News's owner, Rupert Murdoch, is a major owner in Genie Energy, a company profiting from oil drilling in the illegally occupied Syrian Golan Heights. He is a very precise boss in making sure everyone who works for him follows his will. "Israel is the greatest ally of democracy in a region beset with turmoil and radicalism,” he said in 2013. 

CNN's posts are in fact audited by a "pro-Israel" al-Quds bureau before being published. Senior executives send out orders instructing staff to make sure that Hamas is always behind the current violence, while simultaneously blocking any reporting of Hamas’ viewpoint, which its senior director of news standards and practices told staff was “not newsworthy” and amounted to “inflammatory rhetoric and propaganda.”