In a controversial episode of his political comedy series, Patriot Act, Hasan Minhaj provides a concise, yet comprehensive analysis of Saudi Arabia’s diplomatic crisis over the killing of Journalist, Jamal Khashoggi. More specifically, Minhaj dissects the coverage of this event by Saudi Arabian and American media and highlights the similarities and differences in reporting between the two nations. Minhaj stresses the distinction between the way this event has been framed by the media, and the way it has been understood by the populace in both regions respectively. Moreover, he outlines the impact such a disparity between what is encoded by the media, and decoded by everyday citizens has on Saudi Arabians, Americans, and people of the Islamic faith.
To understand the significance of the Khashoggi case’s media coverage, one must have some prior knowledge of the long-standing economic and political relationship between these two countries. Thus, within the episode’s first five minutes, Minhaj summarizes the history of their “strategic alliance,” stating that due to Saudi Arabia’s unique location and significance within the Islamic faith, “whether it’s for oil or for arms deals, [Americans] have always played it cool with the Saudi’s no matter what they do” (Minhaj 2018). Acknowledging this history is important, as it explains why American news coverage of Saudi Arabia has been, as Minhaj points out, disproportionately favourable to Saudi Crown Prince, Muhammed bin Salman (MBS). For instance, American media framed MBS as a reformer, reporting primarily on his lifting of the female driving ban and his plans to end Saudi reliance on oil, and omitting his history of power grabs and autocratic behaviour. Simply put, U.S media aligned themselves with MBS’s “sales pitch” and framed him as a progressive “Rockstar” to maintain the aforementioned American-Saudi Alliance (Minhaj 2008). This in turn explains why American reception of news that the Khashoggi killing was under MBS’s orders was characterized by shock and feelings of betrayal. However, within Saudi Arabia, where citizens had knowledge of MBS’s past wrongdoings such as detaining and torturing family members, people were not surprised by this news. Despite similarly biased coverage in which the Saudi government continually denies stories of tyranny, Saudi Arabians refer to MBS as Abu Rasasa (father of the bullet) and recognize his power grabs as “standard procedure” (Minhaj 2018).
In sum, Minhaj points out that the discrepancy between the truth, what is encoded by Saudi and American media, and what is decoded by the citizens of these nations perpetuates the misunderstanding that the U.S and Saudi Arabia are true allies. Furthermore, due to Saudi Arabia’s significance within Islam, when news such as that of the power grabs by MBS is reported in the U.S. it breeds misplaced distrust of Muslim people within the U.S.; the consequences of which are suffered by Muslim-Americans. It is worth mentioning that due to the comedic tone of Minhaj’s program, one could misinterpret him as making light of these serious issues. However, a counterpoint to that would be that comedy is a more accessible format through which everyday people can begin to educate themselves on politically charged issues such as those discusses in Patriot Act.
Works Cited
Minhaj, Hasan. “Saudi Arabia.” Patriot Act, Netflix, 28 Oct. 2018.