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Houston Chronicle Media Critique
by Nick Cooper
Saturday, Mar. 04, 2006 at 11:52 PM
nickcooper--at--indymedia.org
Julie Mason's piece about Bush's trip to Pakistan has several major journalistic problems.
> Bush pressed the military president to quicken the pace of democratic reform.
It is disingenuous to imply that Bush or leaders who are allied with him can really want democratic elections in Muslim countries when groups like Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, etc. have a good shot at winning.
> Still, some American critics outside the Bush administration think Musharraf is a dictator at heart and that Bush's close relationship with the general undermines the president's rhetoric on democracy.
This is a vague reference to an unmentioned group of Americans. It wouldn't have been too presumptuous to say that many American critics outside the Bush administration think that the president's rhetoric on democracy is completely empty.
> But the war on terror is a cornerstone of Bush's agenda,
The "war on terror" at least belongs in quotes. It is in no way an objective fact to imply that the war is against terror; therefore it is propagandistic to use the term descriptively. The war may very well be increasing terrorism, as the majority in the recent 33 country poll believe.
>and the U.S. needs a strong alliance with Musharraf, whose army is helping to spearhead the fight against al-Qaida and Taliban fighters hiding out in Pakistan's border region with Afghanistan.
It is also in no way an objective fact to assume that Musharraf's army is helping to spearhead the fight against al-Qaida and Taliban fighters hiding out in Pakistan's border region with Afghanistan. In some ways Musharraf's army is fighting them, but in others it appears to be supporting them.
www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/3701736.html
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