. This article manages to combine two of the BBC’s major failings- treating the US as a species of enemy and the EU as some kind of all-powerful godparent for the states of Europe. The article ends (despite being a news article) in familiar vein:
‘The US may not really need baby food from Italy or divers from Belgium, but its call for European and international help shows that, after the divisions over Iraq, it has now realised that even superpowers need friends.’
It’s the classic itchy-fingered BBC reporter’s opinionated twist.
However, the article begins by claiming that the EU is sending aid to Katrina victims, when, as Richard North points out, this is not the case. According to North, citing a Belgian Newspaper, ‘the twelve EU member states who sent aid have done so on an individual basis. Their efforts involved neither “EU” aid, nor EU money.’
So, incorrect and opinionated- not bad for one little news article. But hey, anything to give the EU a freebie public relations success.