06 Dec The Art of Packaging the News, UK-Style
06.12.06
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4 Comments
Say what you will about the Independent’s politics, the paper knows how to make a point. Today’s cover:
Come to think of it, there could have been an entry under ‘Tony Blair’: He was interviewed by Sir David Frost recently (on Al Jazeera’s English service). In the course of the interview, Sir David posed says about Iraq: ‘so far, it’s been pretty much a disaster’. The Prime Minister’s reply began with ‘It has been, but…’ (he went on to explain that this was because of the deliberate campaign by the insurgents).
The British media made rather a lot of the ‘It has been’ part, but the Prime Minister’s Office was quick to say that this had not been meant as a confirmation, merely as a polite acknowledgement of Sir David’s view. It was, apparently, ‘a slip of the tongue’.
What did the American media say, incidentally? Did this figure at all?
Watch the interview on YouTube (the interesting bit is at 06:04), and see a satirical view (from the Private Eye) here.
Kevin,
I have to ask this question, why does the international law community focus so much of its attention on the United States? Sudan commits war crimes on a daily basis, there is an arc of conflict between the Islamic world and its neighbors from China through Russia down to Africa, Central Africa is a continent wide war, the Horn of Africa is on fire. Are there not other regimes for us to focus on for one second.
Ok, fine, the US violated international law when it invaded Iraq. Everyone is focused on the situation. Good job with that. Now, don’t we all think there is something else in the world that demands our attention or is the United States putting a moon base really deserving of a post. I mean seriously, a moon base is a big deal, when the US has persistantly objected, yet millions may die in the Congo. Are we serious.
In fact, I challenge this blog to go one week without a US post.
Anon: Kevin may respond as well but I want to jump in as you bring up a good point worth fleshing out. Why does the international community–not just this blog–spend so much time thinking/talking/writing about the U.S.? I think it is because the U.S. is almost (but not quite) the indispensible party to making a global international legal regime work in a robust manner. If the U.S. undercuts a regime, the institution as a whole is usually significantly weakened (ICC, Kyoto). As the U.S. is disproportionately powerful, it also has a disproportinate effect on the viability of legal regimes and, as a result, people spend a disporportionate amount of time talking about the U.S. is doing. And, of course, part of the reason is that some people spend alot of time talking about the U.S. because they dislike either this aadministration or something about the U.S. as a whole and they relish the chance to give it (the adminstration or the whole country) its alleged come-uppance. However, I think what you see on this blog is that, in part, we write about the things on our minds. As Americans we tend to be focused on issues relating to U.S. news… Read more »
Chris, I appreciate your post. I just had a lot of faith that this blog might be able to present a somewhat interesting view of international law accessible to layman and professional alike. The fact that you had a few of the very scarce conservative, for lack of a better term, voices in the field was even more reason to celebrate. Unfortunately, I think way too much of the posts are basically political complaints with the U.S. For example, the whole Bolton saga was basically a political story. As such, I think a lot of what goes on here fosters the broader perception that international law is the langauge of the left i.e. it isn’t law. Look, I am not asking for a perfect law/politics divide. By who the US appoints to the UN, whether the US obeys a treaty it never signed, Justice O’Connor being on the Iraq Study group, how the UK packages its news, have little, if anything, to do with international law. If somebody wants to start a international politics blog, then go for it. I just feel that this blog could have been a real contibution. My suggestion, and I am being serious, is to… Read more »