Anti-American Protests Flare, 11 years after 9/11

The New York Times article "Anti-American Protests Flare Beyond the Mideast" in Wordle format (click for close-up)

On September 11^th, 2012, triggered by an American video that insulted Islam, anti-American protests began in Cairo’s Tahrir Square.  The protests and destruction quickly spread, and within 4 days, over 65 American embassies around the world had been either penetrated by protestors or threatened with violence.  In his article, Rick Gladstone (a journalist for The New York Times who specializes in Middle Eastern/North African affairs) informs the American public of the chaos occurring from North Africa to South Asia and Indonesia.  Gladstone’s third person perspective and sentence structure effectively establish his expertise concerning Middle Eastern affairs and his pro-American viewpoint.  His sentence structure shows how he presents his beliefs in a way that would resonate with an American audience, as he emphasized the destruction.  Many of Gladstone’s word choices in the text—violent, deadly protests, breached security, penetrated US Embassies, tacit acknowledgements—convey the immensity and chaos of the protests, and effectively uses ethos to appeal to Americans with heightened feelings of patriotism immediately following the anniversary of 9/11.  The article frames the destruction in a way that victimizes the USA, without ever going into detail about the questionable video that acted as a catalyst for the violence.  In this way, I feel that Gladstone accomplished his purpose of informing America of anti-American violence in the Middle East.  However, it seems Gladstone allowed his pro-American views to influence his writing, making the story presented by the article seem incomplete to the reader.