Petraeus's comments to the Financial Times newspaper

Two points:

a) This is a pretty big news story, given to the FT, not the IHT, nor the NYT. Doesn't say much for the IHT's stature in the minds of Pentagon handlers when wanting to speak to the world.

b) The current exec. editor of the IHT is known for his anti blogger comments, calling them people who riff of the MSM.

In this case (see below) the IHT relied on Reuters to pick it up, and used their piece.

That's called riffing off (by the IHT) those who riff (in this case Reuters) off the MSM (in this case the FT).


U.S. troops may quit Baghdad "by July"
LONDON: U.S. combat troops could be pulled out of Baghdad within 10 months because of declining violence in the Iraqi capital, General David Petraeus, U.S. commander in Iraq, said in an interview published on Thursday.
Petraeus's comments to the Financial Times newspaper came as the United States and Iraq seek to finalise a security pact that will govern the presence of U.S. forces in Iraq after a United Nations mandate expires at the end of the year.
There are about 145,000 U.S. troops in Iraq and Petraeus was referring in his interview to the roughly 16,000 stationed in Baghdad, the paper said.
Asked whether it was feasible that U.S. combat forces could leave Baghdad by July, Petraeus said: "Conditions permitting, yeah.
"The number of attacks in Baghdad lately has been ... I think it's probably less than five (a day) on average, and that's a city of seven million people," he added.
http://www.iht.com/articles/reuters/2008/09/04/africa/OUKWD-UK-IRAQ-PETRAEUS.php

Jeremy Irons, the International Herald Tribune and Me.

What does the actor Jeremy Irons have to do with the International Herald Tribune?

Jeremy Irons is an well-known stage and screen actor, perhaps best known internationally for his roles in The French Lieutenant's Woman , "Brideshead Revisited", Betrayal , Die Hard: With a Vengeance , Stealing Beauty ,Lolita ,The Time Machine , The Merchant of Venice , Kingdom of Heaven , Casanova and Eragon

He is an enormous IHT fan and last May he kindly spoke at the IHT's May '68 exhibition at the National Theatre in London.

So that is my excuse for this post, but my intention is to 'share something' else with you.

He wrote to me last week about my book that tells the story of my family's time downsizing from Paris, and chucking in my career as the worldwide marketing director of the International Herald Tribune, to go and live in a small cottage on a struggling farm in the English Cotswolds.

I'll have to ask you to forgive me for blowing my own trumpet - or rather letting Mr. Irons do so - but as he has also kindly given me permission to quote him, I thought I'd make a post about him, the IHT and my book all in one go.

This is what he wrote about A Place in My Country.

"I read A Place in My Country with absolute unalloyed delight. A glorious book."

N.B Anyone who says bloggers are narcissistic and self-serving are clearly wrong.





A Place in the Auvergne
International Herald Tribune
IHT
New York Times
NYT