by Bob Boynton
It starts with lieutenant Watada. This is the way CNN World introduced their report.
Anti-war activists consider 1st Lt. Ehren Watada a hero for his refusal to go to Iraq.
The Army accuses him of betraying his fellow soldiers.
He is a hero or he is betraying his fellow soldiers. The contrasting views of the lieutenant’s actions could hardly be more starkly put.
He refused to go to Iraq because he said the war was illegal, and he would be acting illegally if he went. The military judge said he could not argue the legality of the war in his defense.
He publicly said the war was illegal and without merit. The military judge said he could not argue that his statements were covered by the constitutional guarantee of freedom of speech in his defense.
The reports of Aljazeera [English] and CNN World were about the same length: 540 words at Aljazeera and 495 words at CNN World. They covered the same points. CNN World published an AP story, and Aljazeera and agencies [whatever they are] produced their report. The CNN World report used somewhat stronger language. Their opening sentences were followed by the judge ‘quashing’ the defense that would have been used by Watada. And CNN World had a photograph of lt. Watada while Aljazeera [English] had a photo of Sean Penn, movie actor and peace activist, standing outside the court.
The BBC World report was much shorter — only 201 words. It was written in single sentence paragraphs and had the feel of a list rather than prose. But it covered the same points about the situation that were covered in the longer reports from Aljazeera and CNN World.
The major difference between the news organizations was where they put their reports. It was one of the minor stories on the home page of Aljazeera’s website. That makes it global news. This is their face to a global audience.
BBC World located their brief story at World News and Americas. You did not see it on their listing of global news stories. You had to dig down to the Americas to find it.
CNN World did something of the same. Their story was in the US section of their news. You did not see it on the World page, which is their face to a global audience.
There was a comparable difference in location before president Bush’s state of the union address. Senator Warner and several other Republican Senators had a news conference announcing that they were going to support Senator Warner’s nonbinding resolution criticizing the President’s plan. That made the world news page at Aljazeera [English] and BBC World. CNN World put it in the US section.
Interpretation
We all know that the news media are ‘biased,’ that is they reflect the views of the national ‘audience’ from which they spring. Of course, national does not work for Aljazeera, but we accuse them of the same ‘local’ view of the global news.
But the stories are the same. One cannot find significant differences in the way they report — other than the BBC World prose as a list.
It seems it is not what they write. It is where they place what they write. In effect, BBC World and CNN World said this was not global news. Political criticism is an ‘internal’ affair. The rest of the world does not need to know about it.
And that is one way to interpret global.
News Reports
