Opportunistic BBC. Today the layout of the main BBC web page was most instructive- an item about US troops being sent to Afghanistan dominated (the story was about hunting Al Quaeda, though habitually such a report would be from the quagmire genre), and to the right a story about a firefight in Fallujah which seems to have killed a few bad guys (my interpretation); but right below that came the story of GWB's WMD joke


The article itself is a joke: Robert Fisk could have written it. 'President George W Bush has sparked a political firestorm' it begins portentiously. When questioned about it, Donald Rumsfeld 'dodged the issue' (see, all the Usual Suspects). The Beeb's 'news' report says he 'dodged' it- not 'seemed to evade' or 'changed the subject quickly', but 'dodged'. According to the Beeb's layout one could construct a headline "US troops are fighting (maybe dying, given the ambiguity of the report) and GWB is joking about missing WMD's!". Fine, except that US troops are by and large NOT fighting and dying in Iraq, and GWB rarely makes jokes about WMD, and then against himself. Certainly the two items are unlikely to be found together except on the BBC's Website or in a Democrat's soundbyte.


There's another interesting angle to it as well. Remember Greg Dyke's spiel about 'flag-waving' US journalism on Iraq? Well, look who was laughing at Dubya's joke: 'the Radio and Television Correspondent's Association' at their 60th annunal dinner. See! That proves that Greg Woz Right! The Beeb then moves into full creative journalism mode (remember that this is not an opinion piece, but a 'news' report). They describe how 'in the cold light of day things looked less amusing'. Cue a poe-faced statement from JFK that blends right in. Apparently it was all 'stunningly cavalier'. I'm surprised they didn't depict GWB quaffing flutes of champagne and dancing on the tables before a noble Kerry came in and said, 'sir, I don't believe you're fit to speak to these people. I served in Vietnam and......'