US: Spare US media coverage of Obama-Netanyahu talks
20 May 2009 12:47 AM
WASHINGTON, May 19 AFP - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's first US visit for talks with President Barack Obama on Iran and Palestinian statehood earned only modest coverage in US newspapers on Tuesday.
While the deep differences exposed during the talks between Obama and Netanyahu earned blanket coverage in Israeli media and stoked fears in Israel of cooling ties with its main ally, the story failed to make the front pages of The New York Times, Washington Post or Wall Street Journal.
Each of the papers ran brief teasers of the meeting on page one but the stories themselves ran well inside, including on page 10 of the Journal as well as the Post, and page 12 of the Times.
Cable television news channels aired the Israeli's White House visit as it happened on Monday - and major news outlets covered it broadly on their websites.
But squeezing Netanyahu off the newspapers' front pages were other global headlines, primarily the climactic end to war in Sri Lanka and a US envoy positioning himself for a new job in Afghanistan.
Domestic issues including Obama's toughening of auto emissions and mileage rules and New York city's efforts to battle swine flu also edged out the Israeli premier.
The Post chose to go further afield, printing a four-column-wide photograph of astronauts repairing the Hubble Space Telescope.
It was left to the US capital's second daily, The Washington Times, to carry a page-one piece on the efforts to secure peace in the Middle East.
The Journal focused on the two leaders' commitment to pursue peace with the Palestinians and prevention of Iran's development of nuclear weapons, and what it described as the "significant differences" over their approach to the goals.
The Times led with Obama informing Netanyahu that he has a timetable on assessing Iran's efforts to resolve differences over its nuclear program, and the Israeli reiterating his support for talks with Palestinians, provided they recognise the Jewish state's right to exist.
The Post emphasised the leaders' "shared goals" of achieving peace with the Palestinians and preventing Iran's acquisition of a nuclear bomb, but stressed their "divergent approaches" toward reaching a peace deal.
Washington's largest daily also ran on the same page a story from Jerusalem detailing Palestinian discouragement over the meeting.
