Can they possibly understand what a news article is? Are they too concerned about the poor delicate egos of their Somali news team that they daren’t criticise the blatant one-sideness of the coverage?
What kind of NEWS article is headed “Fears stalk Somalia’s capital once again”
What kind of reporter states so baldly “The advice from one and all is to get Ethiopian troops to withdraw from the country and replace them with African peacekeepers.”
Does everyone love the so-called peacekeepers of the AU so much? Or resent the loss of the Islamofascists who hated entertainments and freedom so much?
Truly blatant stuff. Pathetic and worthless for real understanding. The BBC would be better off without their Somalia section.
So, errm, are Ethiopians not Africans? I do see that they are talking about the AU (who have done so fantastically well in Darfur) but it is an unfortunate turn of phrase. Suggests that the BBC hacks are not as knowledgeable about geography as they should be.
Gee Ed, are you suggesting that the BBC’s correspondent, Mohamed Olad Hassan, might have an axe to grind for the Islamists? Shurely shome mishtake! 🙂
Nice to see Helen from the excellent EUreferendum commenting here. Does that mean she’ll let us comment on her blog now?
I think you should change ‘baldly’ to ‘boldly’ before Mr Reith gets on his soapbox.
qt line up tonight
claire short: far left
charles kennedy: left
lord falconer: new labour
george osborne: call me dave “conservative”
kelvin mackenzie: right
oops – sorry wrong thread. should have gone into the OT thread.
A little surreal, Your Archdukeness.
Let’s have a look at this BBC NEWS article:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/world/americas/6250657.stm
“On Wednesday night, before an audience of millions of Americans, President Bush conceded that strategy in Iraq was not working, and that this was “unacceptable”.
But this was no admission of defeat.”
“He is isolated, but emphatic that Iraq must not be lost.”
“But such is this president – a leader who places conviction above all.”
Oh my god, I can’t believe how biased the BBC is towards Bush etc.
Basically what I’m trying to say is that the article you cite is not a NEWS article, but more of a analysis/opinion piece.
So while I would agree that the passage you highlight would be unacceptable in a NEWS article, to label this particular piece as a NEWS article is really straw-man territory.
MisterMinit-
You raise a reasonable question but I think you really point out that it’s a “sort of” opinion article- yet it isn’t labelled as such.
The Somalia article reports incidents that would properly be “news” and links them to an interpretation where the Islamic Courts are seen as a more effective and more popular organisation than the newly arrived government.
It then takes quotes from locals to support this point.
It also adopts the main talking points raised by the Islamic Courts themselves to popularize their rule- such as road traffic safety.
This is standard BBC Somalia practise- we rarely hear about the puritanism of the IC, which one can find out about very easily out there on the web.
The BBC seems to have a bewildering variety of categories of report- such that this one, with its obvious rhetorical bias against the new government, has no excuse for not being clearly labelled “opinion”. And even then would be a joke.