Media Bias British Style

As biased as the U.S. Media are, they are paragons of objectivity in comparison with some of their foreign counterparts. In large part this is due to the fact that many foreign media outlets put no effort into a pretense of balance. They wear their bias on their sleeves.

Consider this from The Independent. It is the headline and opening paragraphs of their report on the crash of a U.S. Marine transport helicopter in non-combat circumstances. The independent links this tragic news with completely off topic comments from President Bush to make the crash of the helicopter seem to be an insurgent victory.

America suffers bloodiest day as Bush calls on Iraqis to defy the insurgents
By Patrick Cockburn in Baghdad and Kim Sengupta in Shaiba

27 January 2005

Just four days before Iraq's historic elections, 36 US soldiers were killed yesterday in the deadliest single day for American forces since they invaded Iraq almost two years ago.

The heaviest loss was a transport helicopter crash in the western desert that killed all 31 Marines on board. The CH-53 Sea Stallion went down at 1.20am near Rutbah, a desolate town 220 miles from Baghdad. Officials in Washington said that bad weather was the most likely cause.

The only link between the weather related crash and Bush's call for Iraqis to defy the insurgents and vote is that they both happened on the same day. There is no connection between the insurgents and the helicopter crash. But The Independent does its best to link the two together to imply that the deadliest day for U.S. soldiers in Iraq was the result of insurgent activity.

Not to be out done, The Guardian goes for a more direct link.

Bloodiest day for US as poll violence grows

Bush pledge to stay despite setbacks

Rory Carroll in Baghdad and Julian Borger in Washington
Thursday January 27, 2005
The Guardian

The US yesterday suffered its worst day in Iraq since the war began when a marine helicopter crashed in the western desert and insurgents launched a new wave of attacks, leaving a total of 37 Americans dead.

Like I said before, you have to give them some credit for not trying to pretend they are other than what they are.

Posted by: Stephen Macklin at 03:27 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment