Americans annoyed at having to keep Middle Eastern countries straight

LOS ANGELES–When the Arab Spring began 18 months ago, Blanche Kittrick dutifully watched the two minutes of coverage it received some nights on her local television news, and even learned the difference between Tunisia and Libya. “Tunisia’s the one no one cares about, except when it had a revolution,” she explained.

More recently, however, her patience has become strained. With anti-American violence on the upswing in recent days with the release of an inflammatory anti-Islam video, “folks are expecting that I’m still paying attention to Libya, and Egypt, and that other one with the camels,” she said in a recent interview. “I’m getting mighty tired of this.”

Kittrick is not alone. Nationwide surveys have shown that Americans are irritated that they are expected once again to remember which Middle-Eastern country is which, despite the lack of celebrities or other human-interest hooks to hold their attention, aside from the deaths of thousands of men, women, and children in Syria.

Aware of “hot-country fatigue” setting in among the populace, NBC News has adopted the same personal, chatty style it used to cover the Olympics. “Up close and personal with Abu Hamza al-Masri” aired on Saturday afternoon, showing a gentler, more personal side of the radical Egyptian cleric, revealing his fondness for peanut butter, Friday sermons, and stonings. But more may be required.

“Look, I know this keeps coming up,” said Rep. Peter King (R–New York) on Meet the Press on Sunday morning. “But I think we need to stop obsessing about boring stuff like national security and get back to the critical issues that average Americans are clamoring to hear about, such as the gold standard and repealing the Sixteenth Amendment.”

Blanche Kittrick hopes Rep. King is successful in his efforts to change the subject away from foreign policy. “The sooner Mitt Romney stops talking about Egypt and gets back to flirting with the birther movement, well, the better-off we’ll all be,” she explained.