Here's a classic example of media bias. The AP takes a positive story and uses it as a vehicle to rehash everything that's wrong with Iraq. The story itself is straight forward. An Iraqi woman won the Arab equivalent of American Idol. That would make a nice little human interest story, but look how the Associated Press spins it.
BAGHDAD - For four long years, life has been brutally unkind to most Iraqis, but Friday night they had one of those rare moments to focus beyond the daily violence that is swallowing their lives. One of their own took first prize in the Arab version of American Idol.
In Baghdad, a city that becomes deserted and plunges into darkness after nightfall, residents who had electricity to watch televisions celebrated with gunfire that briefly pierced the quiet just before midnight.
Wearing a turquoise evening dress, Shadha Hassoun wrapped herself with the flag of Iraq and broke into tears as fans swarmed the stage in Beirut, Lebanon, where the contest was held and broadcast live throughout the Middle East.
"Her triumph will show the world that Iraqis will still sing despite their wounds," Israa Tariq, a homemaker from Baghdad's al-Ghadeer neighborhood, said before Friday's final episode.
Dubbed the "Daughter of Mesopotamia" by her fans, Hassoun's run to the final in what is perhaps the Arab world's most watched TV entertainment program coincided with a particularly painful time in Iraq.
More than 500 people had been killed in the last six days alone.
Most of them perished in a series of horrific suicide bombings targeting busy markets and in a sectarian massacre where men were dragged out of their homes and shot execution-style.
Greg, A couple of explanations for the AP piece. One, they needed filler so they added the last two lines. Two, they know that newspapers will cut from the bottom of the article so as every stringer knows you put stuff in that if cut off will not destroy the integrity of the main story. Three, the real story is that in the middle of disaster (death of 500 people) you can still have humanity enjoying life and the prospect of a better life. I think the conservative conspiratorial mind wants to read the story of the singer as a lead for another AP stab at the ineffectiveness of foreign soldiers and Iraqi security forces in controlling violence in Iraq. There are other options.
Posted by: ron | March 31, 2007 at 11:59 PM