Over the 30 years
leading up to the 2011 popular uprising, state media took its cue from Hosni
Mubarak's gatekeeper, the diminutive but terrifying Safwat el-Sherif, former minister
of information. Post January 25, state media and papers backed the Supreme
Council of Armed Forces (SCAF), the country's ruling military council. Last
week, in a nod to the democratic process, it was the turn of the Muslim
Brotherhood (MB). Egypt's upper house of parliament, the Shura Council,
announced the appointments of the new editors, setting off a storm of angry
protest among journalists, led by the Journalists' Syndicate, who insisted that
the Islamist-dominated council had essentially rigged the selection process and
assigned their own men to do its bidding.