London, Perspective
At the end of a long, thoughtful post, Thurston writes:
One final thought. Four bombings in London are front-page, stop-the-presses news for two days straight. If that was Baghdad, only four bombings would have been a slow day. What message does that send the the Third World?
Here’s another thoughtful article by Robert Fisk
http://www.robert-fisk.com/articles517.htm
I think it sends the message that when a bunch of bombs go off somewhere where there’s already a war going on, it’s not as surprising a bit of news as when it happens somewhere that isn’t formally at war. Certainly, the embassy bombings in africa a few years ago got plenty of press. As do various terrorist attacks on India from time to time. (On the other hand, terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka are unsurprising, and not really big news, since there’s a long-running civil war going on there.)
–John