I’m not sure what to make of this, but as of this moment — 9:48 a.m. PST — the fighting between Russia and Georgia in South Ossetia seems to be of little importance to some news organizations here in Canada.
Coverage of the opening of the Olympics, understandably, is front and centre at five media web sites I checked. Less understandable is that on a couple of those web sites, news from Georgia is either underplayed or missing, at least “above the fold.” That’s surprising , given reports of more than 1,000 dead so far, pitched battles and bombings and Georgia withdrawing troops from Iraq to join the battle at home. By any definition, this qualifies as major news.
The Globe & Mail has the Olympics in its featured position. In the tiny, “Breaking News” line at the very top of the page, there’s the headline “Russian Tanks Roar into Battle.” I only get the story if I scroll down.
At Canada’s other national newspaper, The National Post, there’s nothing on the first screen of the front page. Scroll down a page and you get the headline “Russia sends forces into Georgian rebel conflict.”
CBC does better: “‘Russia is fighting a war with us’: Georgian president,” is the first item in the headlines, running under the highlighted Games opening coverage. CTV, another national broadcaster, has its story — “Georgian army moves to retake South Ossetia” — as the fifth headlined item, again under the Games story. (The fourth headline is “Eleven Scouts recovering well after collision”.)
The best performance of the five comes from the local Vancouver Sun, which also gives front-and-centre treatment to the Olympics, but where “More than 1,000 dead so far in Russia-Georgia conflict” is the first item in the Latest News column.
By contrast, at 10:03 a.m., the Russian-Georgian battle is the top story at CNN, the BBC, and the Guardian.
Tags: breaking news
Russia is playing the west like a violin. Sadly, Putin and his attack dog were able to simply schedule their war at the same time as the opening of the Beijing olympics, so they’re move wouldn’t be front page news! Duh, how hard is that to see?
All the seasoned political reporters I know in Washington expect embarassing news to be released on a holiday, or when more enticing fare is on the TV. Putin is as western as they come, and knows how to manipulate the media. He must be chuckling now, wondering why it’s so ease.
Then there are the Putin comments, accusing the west of arrogance and deceipt…basically using the “Big Lie” method of the nazis to good effect. It worked well for the Soviets for 40 years, faking riots over missile defense, convincing Arabs that the west was the real evil, and pretending to be a world power for decades, until Reagan declared that the emporer had no clothes, and the whole facade crashed down.
Now, Russia is up to her old tricks. And the press is in China drooling over swimmers and syncronized diving. Maybe we deserve to be mocked after all!
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