Ironically, the day I post about the lack of American voices on the Opinion pages, and tapping into the IHT's publishing partners, this piece in today's International Herald Tribune from IHT publishing partner The Daily Star's editor-at-large.
Instead of the piece being distributed by Agence Global, when will we see the foundation of something called IHT Global for this type of syndication?
OPINION
SUDAN AND THE ICCWhose crimes against humanity?
Rami G. Khouri is editor-at-large of The Daily Star and director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut. Distributed by Agence Global.
We stand before a decisive moment, brought on by the call on Monday by a prosecutor at the International Criminal Court for a warrant to arrest the Sudanese president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, on 10 charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for his policies in Darfur. This is a moment of historical reckoning for the leaders and people of the Arab world. How they respond to this challenge may well determine whether the region collectively shows its desire to affirm the rule of law as its guiding principle, or moves deeper into the realm of dysfunctional, brittle and violent statehood.It is a classic example of how the Arab world is politically tortured and ethically convoluted by its twin status as both victim and perpetrator of various crimes and atrocities. Bashir is being accused and may be put on trial. But, on another level, many in the Middle East and elsewhere will ask if this move is a new form of racism and colonialism that applies different standards of accountability for different countries.The critics of the ICC should not be dismissed as hopeless despots, nor should the court's potential indictment of Bashir be dismissed as neocolonialism administered through the UN Security Council that asked for the investigation in the first place.The ICC's 10-page summary of Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo's request to arrest Bashir is well worth reading as a starting point for considering whether this move is appropriate or not.
The chilling details in the prosecutor's summary of the case revolve around charges that include acts of murder, extermination, forcible transfer, torture, rape, attacks on civilians and pillaging towns and villages. They state that Bashir "masterminded and implemented" a plan to destroy three of the largest ethnic groups in Darfur - the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa - by using the armed forces, the Janjaweed militias, and the entire government apparatus, to specifically and purposefully target civilians.The charges state that over 35,000 people were killed and 2.7 million displaced, and refugee and displaced persons camps were also attacked and harassed, in a policy aimed at destroying these people as distinct groups or tribes. Rape has been a common tactic, they allege, with one third of rape victims being children.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/17/opinion/edkhouri.php
Friday, 18 July 2008
The Owlet
Over the years there have been many in-house organs for the International Herald Tribune. I fondly recall now-publisher SDJ introducing a glossy quarterly called IHT Tid-Bits (or something like that) - not sure if it's still alive or what the latest incarnation is.
Under Lee Huebner there was something called The Owlet (named after the owls that famously decorated the no-doubt climbable facade of the New York Herald building; one of which was retrieved and sat in the IHT's publisher's office and probably still does).
If anyone has complete back copy sets of either of these journals I'd love to hear from you.
Here's a taste of the engaging content of The Owlet from December 14, 1992, reporting on the latest monthly managers' meeting:
"Innovative ideas which met with success provided the recurrent theme for his meeting. The first to be discussed was the '1992' supplement series, just ending this year after five years and some 20 million francs in added revenues. Lee Huebner congratulated Bill Mahder, Axel Krause and everyone else involved in this impressive accomplishment."
Yes, the days of the franc, of Axel, of Bill before he turned into an accountant, profits even.
Which were generously spent on big annual global sales bashes, which sadly, the cost-cutting Peter Goldmark put an end to.
(His first vain-glorious move was to end the employment of the publishers' 24/7 standby chauffer, something I believe only Suzy Menkes now has).
I think the last really interesting venue for these sales conferences (before we all ended up, as a result of a barter deal, at a shockingly awful hotel at EuroDisney) was Istanbul.
I failed to attend much of the conference but spent a few very enjoyable days exploring Istanbul. This I must confess.
www.aplaceintheauvergne.blogspot.com
www.ianwalthew.com
Under Lee Huebner there was something called The Owlet (named after the owls that famously decorated the no-doubt climbable facade of the New York Herald building; one of which was retrieved and sat in the IHT's publisher's office and probably still does).
If anyone has complete back copy sets of either of these journals I'd love to hear from you.
Here's a taste of the engaging content of The Owlet from December 14, 1992, reporting on the latest monthly managers' meeting:
"Innovative ideas which met with success provided the recurrent theme for his meeting. The first to be discussed was the '1992' supplement series, just ending this year after five years and some 20 million francs in added revenues. Lee Huebner congratulated Bill Mahder, Axel Krause and everyone else involved in this impressive accomplishment."
Yes, the days of the franc, of Axel, of Bill before he turned into an accountant, profits even.
Which were generously spent on big annual global sales bashes, which sadly, the cost-cutting Peter Goldmark put an end to.
(His first vain-glorious move was to end the employment of the publishers' 24/7 standby chauffer, something I believe only Suzy Menkes now has).
I think the last really interesting venue for these sales conferences (before we all ended up, as a result of a barter deal, at a shockingly awful hotel at EuroDisney) was Istanbul.
I failed to attend much of the conference but spent a few very enjoyable days exploring Istanbul. This I must confess.
www.aplaceintheauvergne.blogspot.com
www.ianwalthew.com
Where are they now? Previous publishers.
This came up in an email from a previous IHT employee who wrote that "Lee [Huebner], as you may know , is now director of the School of Media and Public Affairs at the George Washington University in Washington."
Well, actually I didn't know that previous publisher Lee Huebner is the director of this School, but I do now.
So what happened after Lee?
Richard McClean - ex-FT (didn't make the top slot there so came to the IHT and first non-American publisher)
Peter Goldmark Jnr - ex-a bit of everything and not much to do with major newspapers
Richard Wooldridge - ex-UK provincial newspapers, mate of McClean, previous COO, interim publisher until arrival of:
Michael Golden - NYT family owner member, now back in NY.
Stephen Dunbar Johnson - ex-FT again, and second British publisher.
I think Richard Mc. spends most of his time playing golf and spending time in the South of France, but know little more than that. I always presumed he was M16 just as previous editors of the IHT were rumoured to be CIA/OSS (more on that another time).
Peter had much to prove after his Charge of the Light Brigade resignation when the NYT bought out the WP. Now working for a major environmental group in NY on their clean air project.
Richard W. : I don't know, other than he talked of 'consulting' and lives in Burgundy, France.
Michael Golden - don't know what he's up to; have to check NYT Company web site.
SDJ - working bloody hard.
Well, actually I didn't know that previous publisher Lee Huebner is the director of this School, but I do now.
So what happened after Lee?
Richard McClean - ex-FT (didn't make the top slot there so came to the IHT and first non-American publisher)
Peter Goldmark Jnr - ex-a bit of everything and not much to do with major newspapers
Richard Wooldridge - ex-UK provincial newspapers, mate of McClean, previous COO, interim publisher until arrival of:
Michael Golden - NYT family owner member, now back in NY.
Stephen Dunbar Johnson - ex-FT again, and second British publisher.
I think Richard Mc. spends most of his time playing golf and spending time in the South of France, but know little more than that. I always presumed he was M16 just as previous editors of the IHT were rumoured to be CIA/OSS (more on that another time).
Peter had much to prove after his Charge of the Light Brigade resignation when the NYT bought out the WP. Now working for a major environmental group in NY on their clean air project.
Richard W. : I don't know, other than he talked of 'consulting' and lives in Burgundy, France.
Michael Golden - don't know what he's up to; have to check NYT Company web site.
SDJ - working bloody hard.
Non-American Columnists - Would the NYT allow it?
In response to my previous posting on American Exceptionalism, a Think! reader wrote to me, with this to say:
"The IHT needs to find its own voice, and it can do that AND still be the global edition of the NYT. Lord knows, the NYT could benefit from some non-American columnists itself."
Excellent point -- but will the Times allow it?
That is the fundamental strategic question as regards how the owners and publisher of the IHT see the International Herald Tribune.
Is the purpose of the global edition of the NYT to project American/NYT voices and opinions internationally, or is it to become what was once referred to as 'the world's daily newspaper', treating the U.S.A as any other country it covers.
Cost-wise, the columnists and editorial run in the IHT also appear in the NYT. So is the decision being led by that consideration, viz. this is the content we've bought and paid for, let's use it in the IHT, rather than a deliberate editorial decision, viz. what we are doing here is deliberately projecting American voices and opinions internationally.
If cost is the motivation, it's a strange way to run a newspaper. Not much different from an in-house aggregator.
If projecting American voices internationally is the goal, isn't that the job of the State Department/CIA/Voice of America? Certainly not the job of an independent newspaper.
If the motivation is indeed to project the voices of Americans and opinions of the NYT editorial board, then that's a cause for concern.
In today's globalized information world, in today's globalized world, what is the rationale for the leading American newspaper of record ONLY to engage Americans as columnists and editorial writers, even if it were just for domestic consumption in the U.S.A, and irrespective of the IHT?
Aren't NYT readers, let alone IHT readers, being somewhat short-changed in terms of the perspectives they are continually served up (American only, as far as columnists and editorials; largely American, as regards opinion page contributors)?
Most national newspapers are basically parochial, and being parochial (as a business) in today's world is the fast-track to going out of business. Because parochialism simply isn't relevant anymore.
I once did a study on the nationality of contributors to the opinion pages of the IHT (columnists excluded) and to that of its primary competitors - the FT and the WSJ. As much as I regret to report this, if you want more international opinion, you'd be better off reading one of those two newspapers.
And with the WSJ now owned by Murdoch, he can use the cost-led in-house aggregator model to get opinion pieces from the UK and Australia, to name just two countries.
Whatever the reasons for the dominant American perspectives (of differing shades, admittedly) this issue needs to be addressed and be understood internally, and by readers: why is there so much American editorial and opinion; why doesn't or couldn't the IHT have its own editorial board based out of Paris?
The IHT are happy to serve up Boston Globe editorials, but failed, even at the height of the so-called success of its 'publishing partnerships' to run editorials from newspapers it deemed worthy of publishing with in Europe and Asia.
www.aplaceintheauvergne.blogspot.com
www.ianwalthew.com
"The IHT needs to find its own voice, and it can do that AND still be the global edition of the NYT. Lord knows, the NYT could benefit from some non-American columnists itself."
Excellent point -- but will the Times allow it?
That is the fundamental strategic question as regards how the owners and publisher of the IHT see the International Herald Tribune.
Is the purpose of the global edition of the NYT to project American/NYT voices and opinions internationally, or is it to become what was once referred to as 'the world's daily newspaper', treating the U.S.A as any other country it covers.
Cost-wise, the columnists and editorial run in the IHT also appear in the NYT. So is the decision being led by that consideration, viz. this is the content we've bought and paid for, let's use it in the IHT, rather than a deliberate editorial decision, viz. what we are doing here is deliberately projecting American voices and opinions internationally.
If cost is the motivation, it's a strange way to run a newspaper. Not much different from an in-house aggregator.
If projecting American voices internationally is the goal, isn't that the job of the State Department/CIA/Voice of America? Certainly not the job of an independent newspaper.
If the motivation is indeed to project the voices of Americans and opinions of the NYT editorial board, then that's a cause for concern.
In today's globalized information world, in today's globalized world, what is the rationale for the leading American newspaper of record ONLY to engage Americans as columnists and editorial writers, even if it were just for domestic consumption in the U.S.A, and irrespective of the IHT?
Aren't NYT readers, let alone IHT readers, being somewhat short-changed in terms of the perspectives they are continually served up (American only, as far as columnists and editorials; largely American, as regards opinion page contributors)?
Most national newspapers are basically parochial, and being parochial (as a business) in today's world is the fast-track to going out of business. Because parochialism simply isn't relevant anymore.
I once did a study on the nationality of contributors to the opinion pages of the IHT (columnists excluded) and to that of its primary competitors - the FT and the WSJ. As much as I regret to report this, if you want more international opinion, you'd be better off reading one of those two newspapers.
And with the WSJ now owned by Murdoch, he can use the cost-led in-house aggregator model to get opinion pieces from the UK and Australia, to name just two countries.
Whatever the reasons for the dominant American perspectives (of differing shades, admittedly) this issue needs to be addressed and be understood internally, and by readers: why is there so much American editorial and opinion; why doesn't or couldn't the IHT have its own editorial board based out of Paris?
The IHT are happy to serve up Boston Globe editorials, but failed, even at the height of the so-called success of its 'publishing partnerships' to run editorials from newspapers it deemed worthy of publishing with in Europe and Asia.
www.aplaceintheauvergne.blogspot.com
www.ianwalthew.com
Wednesday, 16 July 2008
American exceptionalism
In tomorrow's newspaper, already on www.iht.com , Tom Friedman will be asking "Which world would you prefer?"
One where America is unpopular and weakened or one where Russia and China are the big dogs on the block with too much power?
"There was something truly filthy [my emphasis] about China and Russia's vetoes of the American-led UN Security Council effort to impose targeted sanctions on Robert Mugabe's ruling clique in Zimbabwe," he writes.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/16/opinion/edfriedman.php
His sense of history and perspective is extraordinary in its American exceptionalism.
I think most of the IHT's readers would prefer a world in which America doesn't veto resolution after resolution about Israel's occupation of Palestine and forces the enactment of those that have been passed.
One where the American president doesn't assert executive privilege "to prevent Attorney General Michael Mukasey from having to comply with a House panel subpoena for material on the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity", after all his fine talk of prosecuting those who revealed her identity.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/07/16/america/CIA-Leak.php
One where rampant unregulated capitalism is bailed out and a flurry of regulatory measures are introduced to the US financial system at the very moment its wheels begin to come off, when we are on the very edge of systemic failure of the world financial system. Talk about locking the stable door after the horse has bolted. You're going to curb short selling now?
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/16/business/16short.php
One where the American government refuses to use diplomacy and only sends a senior official to participate in international talks with Iran when its hand is forced by its need to send more troops to Afghanistan (and deal with nuclear- armed-already-Pakistan) putting us back to October 2001.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/16/africa/17iran.php
One where the American government doesn't execute people, and listens to the World Court.
http://www.iht.com/articles/reuters/2008/07/16/america/OUKWD-UK-MEXICO-USA-EXECUTIONS.php
That's the world I believe most IHT readers want (all of the above articles have datelines 16 July, 2008), and it needs non-American columnists to reflect those aspirations, writing out of Paris, London, Asia, anywhere but Manhattan.
My sense is that these American (lack of international popularity) polls which Friedman refers to in his piece, and recognizes the truth of, are actually a break on the global growth of the IHT, even more so now it is branded the global edition of the NYT.
It is imperative that the IHT begins to engage non-American voices as part of its line up of key columnists to balance the likes of Brooks & Friedman etc, even with Krugman, Kristoff and Rich, and Cohen somewhere in the middle.
The IHT needs to find its own voice, and it can do that AND still be the global edition of the NYT. Lord knows, the NYT could benefit from some non-American columnists itself.
www.aplaceintheauvergne.blogspot.com
www.ianwalthew.com
One where America is unpopular and weakened or one where Russia and China are the big dogs on the block with too much power?
"There was something truly filthy [my emphasis] about China and Russia's vetoes of the American-led UN Security Council effort to impose targeted sanctions on Robert Mugabe's ruling clique in Zimbabwe," he writes.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/16/opinion/edfriedman.php
His sense of history and perspective is extraordinary in its American exceptionalism.
I think most of the IHT's readers would prefer a world in which America doesn't veto resolution after resolution about Israel's occupation of Palestine and forces the enactment of those that have been passed.
One where the American president doesn't assert executive privilege "to prevent Attorney General Michael Mukasey from having to comply with a House panel subpoena for material on the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity", after all his fine talk of prosecuting those who revealed her identity.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/07/16/america/CIA-Leak.php
One where rampant unregulated capitalism is bailed out and a flurry of regulatory measures are introduced to the US financial system at the very moment its wheels begin to come off, when we are on the very edge of systemic failure of the world financial system. Talk about locking the stable door after the horse has bolted. You're going to curb short selling now?
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/16/business/16short.php
One where the American government refuses to use diplomacy and only sends a senior official to participate in international talks with Iran when its hand is forced by its need to send more troops to Afghanistan (and deal with nuclear- armed-already-Pakistan) putting us back to October 2001.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/16/africa/17iran.php
One where the American government doesn't execute people, and listens to the World Court.
http://www.iht.com/articles/reuters/2008/07/16/america/OUKWD-UK-MEXICO-USA-EXECUTIONS.php
That's the world I believe most IHT readers want (all of the above articles have datelines 16 July, 2008), and it needs non-American columnists to reflect those aspirations, writing out of Paris, London, Asia, anywhere but Manhattan.
My sense is that these American (lack of international popularity) polls which Friedman refers to in his piece, and recognizes the truth of, are actually a break on the global growth of the IHT, even more so now it is branded the global edition of the NYT.
It is imperative that the IHT begins to engage non-American voices as part of its line up of key columnists to balance the likes of Brooks & Friedman etc, even with Krugman, Kristoff and Rich, and Cohen somewhere in the middle.
The IHT needs to find its own voice, and it can do that AND still be the global edition of the NYT. Lord knows, the NYT could benefit from some non-American columnists itself.
www.aplaceintheauvergne.blogspot.com
www.ianwalthew.com
Tuesday, 15 July 2008
NYT/IHT reporters deserve better headlines
And while we're on the subject, NYT/IHT journalists operating in situations of enormous peril, deserve better headlines.
As illustrated by this article:
Reporting in a danger zone: Held first by the Taliban, and then by Pakistan
PESHAWAR, Pakistan: The first sign of trouble came when a bearded young man shouted at us and pointed angrily at the small camera bag we had with us.
He and three other men were the first Taliban we had encountered during our stay in the tribal area of Mohmand. It was Thursday, July 3. We were just about to leave a marble quarry in a taxi with a local tribesman who had shown us how the quarry had been reopened by the Taliban and was generating new income for them.
The quarry is in an area where the Taliban exert significant control.
The men let us go, but our relief did not last long. About 10 minutes later, we were stopped again, by another group of Taliban. The group forced us to drive with them deeper into Mohmand, away from the road that would have taken us back to safety in Peshawar.
One Taliban member rode a motorbike, another rode in our car with a rifle, and two rode in a Taliban vehicle behind us.
We arrived in midafternoon at a mud house with several rooms that served as a makeshift prison. A member of the Taliban came to question us, but kept it brief. Mainly he wanted to know why one of the phones contained the telephone numbers of paramilitary men from the Frontier Corps, the local government militia.
The Taliban have a tense relationship with the government, which intermittently tries to exert control over the tribal areas through force.
A few hours later, senior members of the Taliban came to ask more questions.
We explained that we were journalists, a reporter and a photographer, which was why the phone would have Frontier Corps numbers. (The phone also contained the number for Maulvi Omar, the spokesman for the Tehrik-e-Taliban, the umbrella group of Pakistani Taliban.) One of us, Pir Zubair, stressed his family ties in South Waziristan to show that he was part of the tribal society that lives in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.
We were assured that if it could be proved that we were telling the truth, we would be released. We were treated well, and given food and water. Unlike the inmates, we were not manacled, but our money, phones and cameras were confiscated.
On Saturday morning, a visitor who had come to meet with the Taliban saw us and said that news had quickly spread that we had been captured and that the BBC radio service, which broadcasts in the local Pashtun language, had said we were being held on suspicion of spying.
Later that day, however, one of the men told us: "You work with The New York Times."
Within several hours, the head of the Taliban in Mohmand, Abdul Wali, came to see us, along with Yousaf Shah, an uncle of Pir Zubair's who had driven from South Waziristan to secure our release.
Wali told us there had been a misunderstanding, and that now that the Taliban knew we were journalists, we were free to leave. Our equipment and money were returned to us.
As we left, the spokesman for the Taliban in Mohmand, a man known as Assad, said he had received so many phone calls from Pakistani and international journalists asking for our release that he had worn out two cellphone batteries.
Soon after we left, we were greeted by tribal elders whom the government had brought together to help negotiate our release.
We drove toward Ghalani, the regional capital, where we stopped at the compound of the political agent of Mohmand, the most powerful government official in the area. There, a second interrogation began, lasting from midnight to 3 a.m. It was conducted by representatives of several branches of the government.
They asked nothing about the Taliban but were interested in our movements over the past three days. They asked us biographical questions, particularly of Akhtar because he came from Karachi, a different part of the country. We were treated well during our stay.
Even though the interrogation was completed by Sunday morning, we were kept at the compound for another 36 hours for reasons that were never explained. Appeals were made to the senior official in the Pakistani Interior Ministry, Rehman Malik, and other government officials for our release.
An appeal to the United States Embassy in Islamabad to ask the Pakistani authorities to release us was rebuffed. Kay Mayfield, the senior spokeswoman, said that it did not appear that we were in physical danger and that there was nothing constructive the embassy could do since we are Pakistani citizens.
We were released, finally, on Monday afternoon.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/14/asia/14arrest.php
www.aplaceintheauvergne.blogspot.com
www.ianwalthew.com
As illustrated by this article:
Reporting in a danger zone: Held first by the Taliban, and then by Pakistan
PESHAWAR, Pakistan: The first sign of trouble came when a bearded young man shouted at us and pointed angrily at the small camera bag we had with us.
He and three other men were the first Taliban we had encountered during our stay in the tribal area of Mohmand. It was Thursday, July 3. We were just about to leave a marble quarry in a taxi with a local tribesman who had shown us how the quarry had been reopened by the Taliban and was generating new income for them.
The quarry is in an area where the Taliban exert significant control.
The men let us go, but our relief did not last long. About 10 minutes later, we were stopped again, by another group of Taliban. The group forced us to drive with them deeper into Mohmand, away from the road that would have taken us back to safety in Peshawar.
One Taliban member rode a motorbike, another rode in our car with a rifle, and two rode in a Taliban vehicle behind us.
We arrived in midafternoon at a mud house with several rooms that served as a makeshift prison. A member of the Taliban came to question us, but kept it brief. Mainly he wanted to know why one of the phones contained the telephone numbers of paramilitary men from the Frontier Corps, the local government militia.
The Taliban have a tense relationship with the government, which intermittently tries to exert control over the tribal areas through force.
A few hours later, senior members of the Taliban came to ask more questions.
We explained that we were journalists, a reporter and a photographer, which was why the phone would have Frontier Corps numbers. (The phone also contained the number for Maulvi Omar, the spokesman for the Tehrik-e-Taliban, the umbrella group of Pakistani Taliban.) One of us, Pir Zubair, stressed his family ties in South Waziristan to show that he was part of the tribal society that lives in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.
We were assured that if it could be proved that we were telling the truth, we would be released. We were treated well, and given food and water. Unlike the inmates, we were not manacled, but our money, phones and cameras were confiscated.
On Saturday morning, a visitor who had come to meet with the Taliban saw us and said that news had quickly spread that we had been captured and that the BBC radio service, which broadcasts in the local Pashtun language, had said we were being held on suspicion of spying.
Later that day, however, one of the men told us: "You work with The New York Times."
Within several hours, the head of the Taliban in Mohmand, Abdul Wali, came to see us, along with Yousaf Shah, an uncle of Pir Zubair's who had driven from South Waziristan to secure our release.
Wali told us there had been a misunderstanding, and that now that the Taliban knew we were journalists, we were free to leave. Our equipment and money were returned to us.
As we left, the spokesman for the Taliban in Mohmand, a man known as Assad, said he had received so many phone calls from Pakistani and international journalists asking for our release that he had worn out two cellphone batteries.
Soon after we left, we were greeted by tribal elders whom the government had brought together to help negotiate our release.
We drove toward Ghalani, the regional capital, where we stopped at the compound of the political agent of Mohmand, the most powerful government official in the area. There, a second interrogation began, lasting from midnight to 3 a.m. It was conducted by representatives of several branches of the government.
They asked nothing about the Taliban but were interested in our movements over the past three days. They asked us biographical questions, particularly of Akhtar because he came from Karachi, a different part of the country. We were treated well during our stay.
Even though the interrogation was completed by Sunday morning, we were kept at the compound for another 36 hours for reasons that were never explained. Appeals were made to the senior official in the Pakistani Interior Ministry, Rehman Malik, and other government officials for our release.
An appeal to the United States Embassy in Islamabad to ask the Pakistani authorities to release us was rebuffed. Kay Mayfield, the senior spokeswoman, said that it did not appear that we were in physical danger and that there was nothing constructive the embassy could do since we are Pakistani citizens.
We were released, finally, on Monday afternoon.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/14/asia/14arrest.php
www.aplaceintheauvergne.blogspot.com
www.ianwalthew.com
Just for the record: the problems of American editors writing headlines for the IHT
Just for the record, and as fairly reported, if not the lead the para of various articles, Sunday's rush assualt on an American forward operating base in Afghanistan killed the following people:
- 9 American soldiers
- 17-22 civilians in airsupport missions called in by the Americans less than 1 mile from their base
- numerous Afghan soldiers and police
- numerous insurgents
There was also a suicide bombing day that killed 25 people, 20 of them civilians, in southern Afghanistan.
This year may have been "the deadliest for allied troops in Afghanistan since the U.S. intervention in 2001. Casualties for American and allied troops in the last two months have been higher than those in Iraq in the same period."
But equally, "nearly 700 Afghan civilians were killed in the first five months of the year, a marked increase on previous years, United Nations officials have said."
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/13/asia/afghan.php
Now, if the IHT wants to be a truly global newspaper, the headlines have to change.
Why always this approach?:
9 U.S. soldiers reported killed in Afghanistan
Why not
Up to 22 civilians killed in defence of U.S. base in Afghanistan
Same news, same news reports even: the problem for the IHT needs to be addressed by the subs in Paris writing headlines from a persistently and consistently American perspective.
This has always been a problem for the IHT, but if the NYT has global ambitions it has to harness the respect it has among its potential audience for its reach (see the previous post from www.rue89.com about today's newspaper) with a different prism through which to look when writing headlines.
I'm not advocating anti-Americanism, I am advocating writing headlines for the many potential readers of the IHT for whom the presence of the US soldiers in the base was perhaps the reason it was attacked, and for whom the death of at least double the number of civilians in their defence is of equal importance.
In fact all I am looking for is a little moral equivalency on the value of human life when writing headlines.
(Various sources from IHT:
http://www.iht.com/articles/reuters/2008/07/14/asia/OUKWD-UK-AFGHANISTAN-USA.php
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/14/asia/afghan.php)
www.aplaceintheauvergne.blogspot.com
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