62 online
 
Most Popular Choices
Share on Facebook 20 Printer Friendly Page More Sharing
OpEdNews Op Eds   

BBC reflects bad trends in American media

By       (Page 1 of 2 pages)   7 comments
Follow Me on Twitter     Message Kevin Anthony Stoda
Become a Fan
  (9 fans)
The headline in the Kuwait Times on the front page today (December 27, 2008) focused on  the recent Pakistani military build up on the Indian border.
http://www.kuwaittimes.net/read_news.php?newsid=MTEyMzI3MDgxMw==

With nearly a million people from South Asia living in Kuwait today (out of a population of about 3 million), it is certainly appropriate that the Kuwaiti press should focus on the newest growing hostilities in the most populated regions on the planet.

However, why has the British press reacted in the same way to potential war in its former colony?

The page one KUWAIT TIMES (KT) story was simply entitled, “Tension Mounts as Pakistan Deploys Troops to Indian Border”.  According to KT writers, “The developments sent ties plummeting to their lowest point since late 2001, when Kashmiri militants staged a brazen attack on the Indian parliament-an attack New Delhi blamed on the Pakistan-based extremist group Lashkar-e-Taiba. India has blamed the same group for the Mumbai attacks and has repeatedly said Islamabad is not doing enough to rein in militant groups, a claim that Pakistan rejects.”

Interestingly, I have been listening all day in vain to BBC radio for a report on these rising tensions.

Instead, I received reports from all corners of the globe but have only heard a few South Asian reports—and these are only concerning the one-year anniversary of the horrible assassination of  Benazir Bhutto.

This BBC silence on the events on the Pakistan border indicates a bias in the European press this weekend.

Europe is apparently more concerned about Russia and Hamas or Israel than in a buildup in tensions on the border of two nuclear powers:

“The nuclear-armed South Asian neighbors-which have fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947, two of them over Kashmir-have said they do not want war this time, but warn they would act if provoked. In Islamabad, senior defense and security officials said troops were being moved from the northwest tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, hotbeds of Taleban and Al-Qaeda activity, to the eastern border near India.”

Only the German news agency, Reuters, seems to be on the ball this Christmas holiday weekend—offering a report on Yahoo about the rising tensions between Pakistan and India. This Yahoo/Reuters report included the fact that “Pakistan canceled army leave and redeployed some troops Friday in a sign of rising tension with India.”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081226/ts_nm/us_india_mumbai_pakistan

Meanwhile, unlike in the case of Israel’s early morning bombing deaths of nearly 150 in Gaza today, the U.S. government did speak out against Pakistan’s moves.

Pakistan claims that its response come only after India raised its troop levels and approached the Pakistani border in recent weeks. “[A Pakistani] defense ministry official said authorities had noticed the movement of Indian troops toward the border near the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore, and that they believed India had also cancelled military leave.”

BACK IN NORTH AMERICA

Taking a cue from the people at FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy and Reporting) in the USA.
http://www.fair.org/index.php, I decided this very day (Saturday December 27, 2008) to look at another story neglected by both most of  the mainstream news media sources in North America and in Europe.

DEMOCRACY NOW radio had reported on Wednesday that the U.S. press was failing to discuss or really look into the largest sludge spill in U.S. history.  It had occurred on Monday in Tennessee.
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/24/spill_at_tennessee_coal_plant_creates

I decided to look up online whether many other reports on this toxic ash catastrophe story were to be found on American websites. I found many such stories—but most were the same few stories which had been linked to environmental blogs.
http://www.greendaily.com/2008/12/26/ash-and-sludge-cover-tennessee-town/

Next Page  1  |  2

(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).

Rate It | View Ratings

Kevin Anthony Stoda Social Media Pages: Facebook Page       Twitter Page       Linked In Page       Instagram page url on login Profile not filled in

KEVIN STODA-has been blessed to have either traveled in or worked in nearly 100 countries on five continents over the past two and a half decades.--He sees himself as a peace educator and have been-- a promoter of good economic and social development--making-him an enemy of my homelands humongous DEFENSE SPENDING and its focus on using weapons to try and solve global (more...)
 

Go To Commenting
The views expressed herein are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
Follow Me on Twitter     Writers Guidelines

 
Contact AuthorContact Author Contact EditorContact Editor Author PageView Authors' Articles
Support OpEdNews

OpEdNews depends upon can't survive without your help.

If you value this article and the work of OpEdNews, please either Donate or Purchase a premium membership.

STAY IN THE KNOW
If you've enjoyed this, sign up for our daily or weekly newsletter to get lots of great progressive content.
Daily Weekly     OpEd News Newsletter
Name
Email
   (Opens new browser window)
 

Most Popular Articles by this Author:     (View All Most Popular Articles by this Author)

BED-INs and Other Protests Needed Now

Why have German-, Italian- and Latin American Internment during WWII been kept out of the USA History books?

GULF CIVIL SOCIETY FORUM calls for Gulf Monarchies to abandon absolutism and to adopt European-style Parliaments

TRIBE, TRIBALISM AND CULTURAL CHANGE-KUWAIT 2008

A WORLD OF PRETENDERS: Partial Review of the Filipino Novel, THE PRETENDERS by F. Sionil Jose

PHILIPP ROESLER, of Vietnamese Descent. to Head the Health Ministry in Germany, as his own Party Plans to Push for more

To View Comments or Join the Conversation:

Tell A Friend