Monday, July 07, 2008

The Artistry of Spin: It's All in the Headline

UPDATE: Yup and yup.
===============
Okay. Which is it? One of these groups is not like the other:

Iraq demands pullout timetable in US defence pact talks

Iraq Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki demands US withdrawal

or

Iraq's Maliki suggests setting timetable for U.S. withdrawal

Iraqi Prime Minister advocates withdrawal timetable

Iraq raises idea of timetable for US withdrawal

Iraqis want US troop withdrawals tied to security agreement

Iraq floats pullout timetable

"Demands" verses "suggests", "advocates", "raises", "wants" or "floats"? Nah. There's no spin here.

One has to dig deeply into the articles in order to get at the context of al-Nouri's remarks, too.

For example, who was his audience?
"The direction we are taking is to have a memorandum of understanding either for the departure of the forces or to have a timetable for their withdrawal," a statement from Maliki's office quoted him as telling Arab ambassadors to the United Arab Emirates.
Or, is this an indication of serious disagreement between Iraq and the US?
"'As Ambassador Crocker has said, we are looking at conditions, and not calendars -- and both sides are in agreement on this point,' he added."
And what else might be at stake here?
"A possible withdrawal from Iraq has become a major issue in the US presidential election campaign and could also figure prominently in local elections in Iraq in October."
Of course looming elections have never influenced what a politician says to the home audience, have they.

The media is very accustomed to attempting to influence American voters, but remains quite oblivious to the impact of their spin on Iraq. But then what else is new?

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

LOL! You're like me, my friend. After reading their drivel over and over the years, it's fun to spot their tongue/truth twisting spin, isn't it?

July 10, 2008 12:16 pm  
Blogger Louise said...

Oh yes. Funny how the context is always down near the bottom, too, isn't it.

July 10, 2008 12:35 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I think it's because they know most Americans won't read all of the drivel, so they can safely put it near the bottom. That way, it'll go unnoticed.

July 11, 2008 5:37 am  

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