Committed anti-Israel partisan Andrew Stroehlein, from the Hamas apologists at the International Crisis Group, Dec. 04, 2008:

I sometimes get stunned looks from Americans when I tell them that, as far as the Arab-Israeli conflict is concerned, the Israeli media are much freer than the US media. But if you spend even a little time looking at the Israeli papers online, you'll quickly realise the range of debate and discussion on the Middle East is far wider there than in the mainstream American media -- and most of the non-mainstream US media too.

TIME White House correspondent Michael Scherer, June 6, 2009:

There is no right to a free press in Saudi Arabia. According to the State Department's 2008 Human Rights report, authorities have the right, under law, to "prevent anything that can lead to disunity, sedition, and separation," from being published. Foreign press reports are regularly censored, and all public employees are enjoined from "engaging in dialogue with local and foreign media."... the White House press corps will be severely restricted while in the country. Here are the instructions I just received from the U.S. State Department: ... "journalists are expressly prohibited from leaving the hotel or engaging in any journalistic activities outside of coverage of the POTUS visit. Those who do so risk arrest and detention by Saudi authorities."

At times like this, I like to remember what Saudi lobbyist and Obama NIC pick Chas Freeman suggested on his America-bashing trip to Iran: the US should degrade its ties with Israel because "while maybe 40 years ago many of its values were convergent with ours... there's been a divergence of values." Not like the Saudis, with whom we're simpatico.

References:
* Top Obama Adviser Carries Obama Foreign Policy To Logical Conclusion - Meets With Hamas And Then Resigns So It Won't Be A "Distraction" [MR]
* Israeli media freer than US on conflict [Stroehlein]
* On Saudi Press Freedoms [Swampland]
* Freeman On Iranian TV: "I Shouldn't Have Been Surprised" Obama Threw Me Under The Bus (Oh, And Israel Won't Survive) [MR]

Previously:
* Obama's New Saudi-Funded Spy Chief: "The Lobby" Controls US Publishing, Shuts Down Arguments About How The "Brutal Oppression Of The Palestinians" Caused 9/11
* Watchers Council Results - Obama's New Pro-Saudi Spy Chief Has A Few Analytical Hiccups
* White House: Arab States Will Tone Down Their "Israel Has To Commit Suicide" Demands. Arab States: No We Won't.