David Rodeback's Blog

Monday, February 20, 2006

Don't Believe Everything You Hear, Part CLXXIV

Numerous news reports today include a lead story about the US turning over major stateside seaports to the United Arab Emirates. That would like be as dumb as it sounds, but that's not what's proposed.

It's all over the news that the Bush Administration has approved turning over several of the largest US seaports to the United Arab Emirates. Or so I've heard in several different reports today. But if you did justice to last week's recommended readings, you already know that report is quite inaccurate.

Apparently, there's a lot of journalistic homework, including fact checking, which simply doesn't get done. I only heard the story reported correctly once: A British company which had the contract for those ports' operations (not security, I think) has been bought by a company from the UAE. That is a far different matter. It may pose security concerns in itself, but it's not remotely the same as selling the actual seaports to a foreign government. Even "turning American ports over to an Arab company" is not a very near miss.

Better luck reporting tomorrow, perhaps.

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