With so much negative news coverage of Blackwater in recent weeks, one would expect that its October 3 rescue of the Polish Ambassador to Iraq after an assassination attempt would be front-and-center in the initial press reports.
Most of the early reports buried the Blackwater reference deep into their stories. Here's an initial survey of the coverage, as surveyed online, late on October 3. Some of the stories will have been updated but on the same links, so the emphasis might change. Even so, here's what we found.
Associated Press correspondent Kim Curtis reported on Blackwater's role in the first sentence of her article.
Al Jazeera and the Voice of America ignored Blackwater's role in the rescue. Al Jazeera made no mention of Blackwater at all. VOA's Jim Randle said nothing about the rescue mission but reported that the attack was the type that prompted the State Department to hire Blackwater. Randle then recycled derogatory information from the New York Times about the company.
Associated press correspondent Bushra Juhi buried the item in the 14th paragraph.
Bloomberg News, in a report by Katya Andrusz, ignored Blackwater's involvement. So did an unsigned story by the BBC.
CNN reported on the Blackwater rescue operation in the 3rd paragraph of its early report.
Los Angeles Times staff writer Tina Susman mentioned Blackwater in the third paragraph, but said that "helicopter provided by Blackwater USA . . . was used to fly the wounded from the scene." Note the passive voice, as if Blackwater pilots and crew played no role.
McClatchy Newspapers put Blackwater right in the headline, in a Baghdad piece by Jay Price and Hussein Kadhim, "Blackwater helicopter becomes air ambulance after bombing."
MSNBC said nothing as of the time of this posting.
New York Times reporter Paul von Zielbauer stuck the reference to Blackwater in the 14th paragraph.
Deborah Haynes, writing in the online edition of The Times of London, put Blackwater in the 10th paragraph, but editors illustrated the article with a photo of a Blackwater "Little Bird" helicopter with a caption crediting the "controversial" company.
The Washington Post said nothing by the time of this posting.
Interesting how you guys took down all the comments.
What a bunch of cowards. Can't take a little criticism?
Basically the gist of the comments, before you removed them all, was this: Who are you guys, and why are you defending the mercenaries responsible for murders of civilians in Iraq?
Posted by: ohdave | October 05, 2007 at 06:22 AM
What Ohdave said.
Posted by: Pierre Tristam | October 05, 2007 at 10:03 AM