Having misrepresented US aid commitments to Pakistan (as noted previously), the Beeb found it convenient to do so again.
This report says that the aid effort has been ‘stepped up’, immediately following this with the statement that ‘In Balakot, close to the epicentre in Pakistan, US helicopters have been used for the first time to ferry supplies.’ This is a report dated today- I’m pretty confident it wasn’t around yesterday. What a decent news organisation might have pointed out here is some salient points from the following:
‘RAWALPINDI, PAKISTAN AND NEW DELHI – US military helicopters arrived Monday from neighboring Afghanistan, assigned to help out in the relief effort of a key US ally devastated by the Oct. 8 earthquake. But on arrival in Pakistan, severe thunderstorms and hail kept the choppers all but grounded Tuesday, a source of frustration here.
“Thunderstorms are preventing us from doing our job,” says Staff Sgt. Lance Albert, a member of a five-man chopper crew of the Oregon National Guard, aboard a Chinook helicopter.’
When put alongside the BBC’s eyewitness account (also reported as part of the main story intro) that “I have seen people eating grass…. People are dying of starvation.” , it can be seen that the slant of article suggests that the US response is somehow implicated in that situation. Very unfair, in context– dangerously so, given US-muslim relations.
This is really getting embarrassing. It’s worse than Condi’s picture itself. If this doesn’t work I’m going to have to do some kind of penance.
Now I’m going to close my eyes and click on ‘publish’:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_po…ics/4346162.stm
Bryan,
LOL! “Page not found”.
Rob, I’m going to risk the very last shreds of my reputation.
I’m holding my breath. Here
goes
(I ‘spose I should learn to use the ‘preview’ button more effectively!)
John in London,
I would rather not have discussed this in public, but if your firewall is stopping my emails I have not got much choice.
A month ago I emailed asking, was it you who contacted John B’s employers causing him to close down his blog?
Someone alleged that it was. The fact that an allegation is made does not make it true, of course.
I was also in email correspondence with John B. He was not the source of the allegation.
(Added later to avoid any possible misunderstanding: in fact John B said he thought it unlikely.)
Bryan,
I see what you mean about ‘horror movie audition’ they must have caught Secretary Rice mid word. But frankly it takes an awful lot to make Condi look bad – she’s the prettiest Secretary of State we’ve ever had, which no doubt is why foreign heads of state keep kissing her. 😉
Roxana, thanks for the chuckle.
….she’s the prettiest Secretary of State we’ve ever had….
I agree, but if Chirac has kissed her, that’s no recommendation because he’ll kiss anybody, and kiss up to anybody – even Arafat and Saddam.
Also, are you saying that nobody was rushing to kiss Colin Powell??
Oddly enough no. Though I consider him a pretty fine looking man as well. Maybe it has something to do with world leaders being predominately male and heterosexual?
Probably.
Come to think of it, I wonder why all those male, heterosexual leaders were always so keen to meet Arafat. Surely they realised they would have to kiss him on both cheeks?
Well, I guess they hated Israel enough to brace themselves and go ahead and do it.
“…was it you who contacted John B’s employers causing him to close down his blog?”
Natalie, do you have any information other than from “johnb” that his employers caused him to shut down his blog? My limited experience of “johnb” would incline me to take his uncorroborated statements with a pillar of salt.
Not that I know anything about all this. I don’t visit this blog so often anymore (not many posts and it seems every other comments thread turns into tiresome Muslim bashing), and I missed all the juicy gossip.
Dammit, I always miss out on the juicy goss!
.