US COMBAT COMMAND IN AFRICA MISUNDERSTOOD SAYS COLOMBIA REVIEW OF JOURNALISM
March 12th 2007 12:38
US MEDIA SPIN DOCTORS URGENTLY NEEDED IN AFRICA
The Colombia Journalism Review reported recently on the shrinking, or outright abandonment, of American news bureaus around the world, and “lamented the effect that this will have on foreign news coverage in the United States, which is already pretty paltry.”
The Review now backs that claim with a report this week that American military presence in Africa has received little coverage in the US press, despite its importance. It said a new American combat command, AFRICOM, announced in early February, will “oversee military, humanitarian, and good governance programs on the continent.”
But, as the Review points out, the issue has of course received coverage in Africa’s press, and adverse coverage to boot. The Review cites South Africa's Mail & Guardian newspaper correspondent Vi rginia Tilley who wrote that AFRICOM "suggests that more insistent American demands for military and intelligence cooperation will soon be heard in more African capitals… the Bush administration's agenda offers little but mounting expense and new dangers for African security. The urgent question for South Africa is not how to join that war, but how to help protect Africa from it.”
The Review comments, “The obvious problems with Tilley's overly simplistic and alarmist analysis aside, the piece was remarkable in that if chanced upon by an American news consumer, it would likely come as, well, news. And that's a problem. As we noted earlier, the US military is extremely active in Africa, mostly providing medical and infrastructure support, and the fact that we are stepping up our commitment to the continent is a big deal, for a variety of reasons.”
Media Madness comments that the Review seems eager to provide the spin that Washington has obviously neglected to give, and perhaps the Review has overlooked the fact that the military is the military and a “combat command” is a combat command. If the US wants to be seen as providing medical and infrastructure support, perhaps it should be sensing in the appropriate civilian organisations, not the military and not a combat command.
The Colombia Journalism Review reported recently on the shrinking, or outright abandonment, of American news bureaus around the world, and “lamented the effect that this will have on foreign news coverage in the United States, which is already pretty paltry.”
The Review now backs that claim with a report this week that American military presence in Africa has received little coverage in the US press, despite its importance. It said a new American combat command, AFRICOM, announced in early February, will “oversee military, humanitarian, and good governance programs on the continent.”
The Review comments, “The obvious problems with Tilley's overly simplistic and alarmist analysis aside, the piece was remarkable in that if chanced upon by an American news consumer, it would likely come as, well, news. And that's a problem. As we noted earlier, the US military is extremely active in Africa, mostly providing medical and infrastructure support, and the fact that we are stepping up our commitment to the continent is a big deal, for a variety of reasons.”
Media Madness comments that the Review seems eager to provide the spin that Washington has obviously neglected to give, and perhaps the Review has overlooked the fact that the military is the military and a “combat command” is a combat command. If the US wants to be seen as providing medical and infrastructure support, perhaps it should be sensing in the appropriate civilian organisations, not the military and not a combat command.
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