The story was ostensibly about the fact that 2,000 Iraqis demonstrated against terrorism at an Iraqi bombing site. As if to prove my theory, the exact headline was: “2,000 Demonstrate at Iraqi Bombing Site”.
That’s huge news because it’s a complete 180 degree turn from what was possible in that part of the world just a very short time ago. It’s fabulous news that the people in that particular country seem poised to turn against terror, unlike liberals here for example.
But the story (by AP’s Rawya Rageh) quickly revealed itself for the bait and switch that it actually was. The opening paragraph was:
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) – More than 2,000 people demonstrated Tuesday at the site of a car bombing south of Baghdad that killed 125 people, chanting “No to terrorism!”
…which was quickly followed, in the next and several succeeding paragraphs, by reports of death in the streets and a French reporter who was kidnapped and destruction and violence and…
…A French journalist abducted nearly two months ago, meanwhile, pleaded for help in a video that surfaced Tuesday, saying she was in failing health.
Florence Aubenas, 43, a veteran war correspondent for the leftist daily Liberation, and her Iraqi translator, Hussein Hanoun al-Saadi, were last seen leaving her Baghdad hotel on Jan. 5. The video was dropped at the offices of an international news agency in Baghdad, and it was not possible to verify when it was made.
Appearing pale and alone…
Before finally getting back to the headline and opening paragraph…
[…] More than 2,000 people held the impromptu demonstration on front of the clinic, chanting “No to terrorism!” and “No to Baathism and Wahhabism!”
Wahhabism is a reference to adherents of the strict form of Sunni Islam preached by Osama bin Laden, while the Baath party was the political organization that ran Iraq under Saddam Hussein. […]
…and then getting back to the negative aspects of every thing they could possibly think of over several more paragraphs, never again mentioning the supposed point.
I suggest two separate stories next time if the media writers can’t focus. One happy, one sad. Unfortunately, I think my idea of the happy story is the opposite of the one the reporter would.
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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