Egyptian TV Swayed Public Against Morsi, in Favor of Sisi

The dramatic shift in popular opinion that is expected to lift a former army chief to president of Egypt traces, in part, to an incident outside a TV station.

One night last June, long before Field Marshal Abdel Fattah Al Sisi was seen as presidential material, the news directors of six satellite news channels huddled in an office to discuss growing protests outside by backers of Mohammed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood leader elected president after the Arab Spring uprising. The news directors say they were terrified. Islamists enraged at the stations' criticisms of Morsi had surrounded the office park that housed their TV offices, intimidating reporters who came and went.

The news directors made a decision: From then on, their stations would refer to Muslim Brotherhood supporters as "terrorists." The protesters "were saying 'We will kill you.' They started throwing Molotov cocktails at the gate. So this was terrorism," said Albert Shafik, news director of a channel called OnTV. "So we explained this every day on air." The language in broadcasts watched by millions proved a pivot point in Egypt's circuitous development after the Arab Spring, from nascent democracy to a new embrace of leadership by former generals.