June 08, 2004
G8 Summit: Leave it to the moonbat British press to paint Georgia as backward
St. Simons Island, GA is quiet this week; many of the locals having shipped out to parts unknown.
Nearby Sea Island is hosting leaders from across the world as a part of the G8 Summit.
Protesters and much of the press, alike are about 60 miles north of there in Savannah. But many protesters appear to have stayed home, which leaves the press taking pictures of each other.
Well, at least with one exception.
E Jane Dickson of the UK's Independent, apparently with nothing good to say, is having fun inventing negative spin on the gathering and the setting.
...it was announced a year ago that President Bush would be hosting the 2004 G8 Summit on Sea Island (Sea Island as in cotton, as in slaves)...See what I mean?...around half the islands' residents have evacuated, scared silly by the double, and largely undifferentiated, threats of international terrorism and violent protest.
He has just heard a rumour that 2,000 body bags have been delivered to the clapboard Chamber of Commerce across the road from the bookstore. This intelligence is passed around like a joint at a fortysomething party, a delicious whiff of recreational danger. Five minutes later, one of the island's fire chiefs drops by, fresh from a briefing. It's not a rumour. The body bags are here, together with a refrigerated lorry to take away the corpses. "I liked it better when it was a rumour," says Larry.
The entire Independent article reads like that, chock full of quotes and anecdotes, carefully crafted to make Georgia and Georgians look like backwoods hicks.
The article quickly glosses over the fact that St. Simons is a high-end resort community, and that many of the residents are not full-time residents. The article goes out of it's way to suggest that the community is "under siege" by the confab, when, if anything, it's under siege by reporters like Dickson, desperate for some kind of controversy or action to report on. All that's left is to either report on the sea turtles of the coastal beaches, or make stuff up.
Guess which one Dickson chose?
Posted by mhking at June 8, 2004 02:36 PMJust last night the France2 news was complaining that the Georgians were gouging them with fees for renting tables, internet connections & so on (i.e., too smart). Maybe the Independent & France2 should coordinate their views to avoid confusing their sophisticated European viewers.
Posted by: Fausta at June 9, 2004 09:26 AMTEST OF EMAIL SENT TO THE EDITOR OF THE INDEPENDENT
I was flabbergasted to read the ridiculous article full of totally unsavoury language and downright false statements made by E Jane Dickson in her 'article' "Lockdown on Sea Island". To use such language as 'shit' 'shiny turds' etc shows her lack of courtesy towards her readers. To then slip in ridiculous statements such as 'Sea Island as in cotton, as in slaves),' show she has not bothered actually researching her 'story'. Should I refer to London as 'London as in home of terrorists, as in German child murderers of 1944' and so on? It would be regarded as a lack of manners and very poor reporting.
The majority of homes on Sea Island are like the majority of homes in the Scottish Highlands where I live - empty most of the year and owned by people who live far away. No-one is being forced to leave according to my friend who lives there and indeed she says that apart from the increase in helicopter noise there are few signs of the G8 conference. Obviously there will be hassle but hey we get that weekly in Inverness when the local team are playing!
I presume the E in Jane Dickson name is 'Ernest' as in earnest seeker of truth but too bone idle to actually go and find it and make up stories instead. She would be in good company with Caroline Hawley of the BBC in her hotel in Baghdad who reports so insightfully on incidents that occurred hundreds of miles away...
That's another reader lost.