10 troops died and 'only 150 Afghans voted'

The headline on the front page of the new, positive London Evening Standard reads

10 troops died and ‘only 150 Afghans voted’

Note the quotation marks. What’s inside them is never referenced to anyone.

The ‘story’ is that only 150 people voted in Babaji. A second story is that ten British soldiers died in Operation Panther’s Claw. The new, positive London Evening Standard forgets to mention that

  • it is not comparing like with like (votes in one part of Helmand against British deaths across the whole of Helmand)
  • does not say where or what Babaji is (are we talking about the area or the village, and what are their populations?)
  • it does not have confirmed figures (because they’re not available yet)
  • it doesn’t say that enabling people to vote was not the main aim of Operation Panther’s Claw (which was to secure a permanent ISAF presence in Helmand)
  • it doesn’t say that one of the results of Operation Panther’s Claw was to enable an extra eighty thousand Afghans in Helmand to vote against a campaign of violence and intimidation

Just thought I’d mention. It’s not as if the Evening Standard hasn’t changed from being a negative, mendacious rag of inferior quality.

xD.

PS you’re right, reading the ES is bad for my blood pressure.

Posted on Wednesday, August 26th, 2009 at 10:52 pm
Categories: Afghanistan, Armed forces, Countries, Media.
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2 Responses to “10 troops died and 'only 150 Afghans voted'”

  1. Toby Says:
    August 31st, 2009 at 8:21 am

    But isn’t said paper losing cash so quickly it’ll have to shut down? If the londonpaper falls, surely the actually costly, cruddier version, the Evenin’ Standard, must eventually melt too?



  2. Dave Says:
    August 31st, 2009 at 6:20 pm

    I’m not sure, Toby. I don’t know what its financial situation is, but I doubt Lebedev will allow it to die any time soon.

    The ES has seen competition off before – notably, Robert Maxwell’s London Daily News. It’s also in a different market to Metro, thelondonpaper, London Lite and CityAM. The latter four are essentially reading for the commute, meant to be consumable in about twenty minutes. The ES at least aims to be a quality newspaper. That means, firstly, it’s paid for and, secondly, it has enough quantity and quality to be read other than on the bus. I had hopes that it was going to be less of a rag after Lebedev bought it. There has been some improvement, but I am a little concerned that the DGMT tendency will reassert itself.

    I still feel that London could support a second, paid-for newspaper.

    xD.