If it can be done, it will be done.  But of course it means that someone has to make the decision that a particular story is deemed appropriate for middle eastern readers and not appropriate for American readers. 

But what if you fooled the website with an IP address that indicated you are from the middle east?  Is the article saying that the decision to block is based on IP address location, or is it blocked from entering the US period? 

And what do any of these news outlets stand to gain from this unless they are being directed to act this way?

One thing I know for sure:  it won't work.  Technology always finds a way around such a problem.  Technology may prove to be our undoing in terms of the global economy, but it will be our friend in preserving our freedoms of speech, the press and access to information.