The Washington Post has pulled from its website a story criticized on this blog for its uncritical acceptance of George W. Bush's spin regarding the DP World deal.
The Post published a story on Friday about the president's reaction to the news that Dubai Ports World would exclude the management of American seaports from its deal to purchase the British firm Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co. When Senator John Warner announced the agreement on the senate floor on Thursday, it was presented as an offer from DP World to the United States.
On Friday, however, ABC News reported that the deal was result of a request from the Bush administration.
On the same day, CBS News reported that the DP World compromise was arranged in consultation with White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove.
Nonetheless, on Friday, the Post published on its website a story by reporter William Branigin titled "Bush: 'Broader Message' About Ports Deal a Concern," which uncritically quoted the president as expressing surprise and disappointment at the "message" that the compromise might send to international trading partners of the United States. The Branigin piece hit the web several hours after the ABC and CBS stories had been noted in the blogosphere, including on the widely-read Daily Kos.
UncommonSense posted a critique of the Branigin piece criticizing it for its uncritical acceptance of Bush's disingenuous remarks at a conference of the National Newspaper Association.
The Washington Post reports with complete credulity President Bush's "concern about the 'broader message' being sent to America's allies in the Middle East by an uproar in Congress that forced a company based in the United Arab Emirates to abandon plans to manage six U.S. ports."The critique spent the rest of the day in the Technorati "Who's Blogging" box on the story's web page.
This is despite at least two press reports indicating the DP World pullback was done at the request of, or in consultation with, the Bush administration.
Post reporter William Branigin writes:Referring to yesterday's announcement by Dubai Ports World that it would sell off its U.S. operations to an American owner, Bush said the company had made a "difficult decision to hand over port operations that they had purchased from another company." He said he remained convinced that the firm's $6.8 billion acquisition of U.S. port operations from a British company would not have undermined port security, but noted that "Congress was still very much opposed to it."
Well, both ABC News and CBS News reported today that the Bush administration asked DP World to divest itself of the American port proprietorship, so what does this say about Bush's own commitment to his war on terror?
Speaking to a National Newspaper Association conference in Washington, Bush added, "I'm concerned about a broader message this issue could send to our friends and allies around the world, particularly in the Middle East. In order to win the war on terror, we have got to strengthen our relationships and friendships with moderate Arab countries in the Middle East."
And, what does it say about a president who will stand before an audience of professional journalists and pretend to be surprised and disappointed about events he helped to facilitate?
The shamelessness of George W. Bush defies belief. So does the gullibility of some members of the press.
By Friday night, the Branigin piece had been scrubbed from the Washington Post website. In fact, the link in the UncommonSense entry criticizing it goes now to a different story by reporter Jonathan Weisman titled "Port Deal's Political Fallout Not Over." The Weisman piece mentions Bush's reaction to the compromise, but gives it far less prominence. In Branigin's story, the Bush quote was the lead. In Weisman's the quote is shorter and appears in the middle of the story.
A day after United Arab Emirates-based Dubai Ports World abandoned its bid to control terminal operations at six major U.S. seaports, lawmakers and President Bush made it clear that the issue was not going away. In remarks to newspaper editors, Bush said he is "concerned about a broader message this issue could send to our friends and allies around the world, particularly in the Middle East."A Google search for the text in the first paragraph of the Branigin story turns up a link with the title of the original piece. However, the link leads to the new story by Weisman.
It is worth noting that the Weisman piece fails also to mention the news that the DP World compromise was driven by the Bush adminstration.
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