American media coverage of the Ebola virus is “bizarre,”according to one veteran CNN anchor.
CNN International anchor Isha Sesay recently offered some harsh criticisms of American media outlets for not focusing on the impact Ebola has had on thousands in Africa. Instead, Sesay suggests, outlets have centered coverage around the “few cases” in the states.
The coverage, Sesay adds, has made her an “angry black woman.” Sesay made the comments last week while speaking on a special media panel at the CNN MultiChoice African Journalist Awards 2014, according to Yahoo! News.
The anchor told audience members the worldwide response to the Ebola crisis in Africa has been “inadequate.” She also railed against American ignorance on Ebola:
What I’m seeing in the United States is this lack of knowledge. And not just a lack of knowledge, but also a lack of empathy for what we are going through right now on the continent. So I’m in a really difficult space right now […] The coverage of Ebola to date — before we moved to the situation where we’re now where the focus is so much on America and the fear that the Western hemisphere is going to be taken over by Ebola – the coverage of the continent had fixated on the continent, and so little on the people.
The panel took place at the Serena Hotel in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, according to Yahoo! News. Sesay lives in Atlanta but spent much of her childhood in Sierra Leone. Several of her immediate family members still live there.
Seshay has thrown her support behind Ebola Deeply, an “independent media project,” which she says is committed to sharing the news and information needed to stop the spread of the Ebola virus.
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