Dummy Watch Rolls On

Hrm. This blog is turning into something of a Loewenstein-Watch, but it's hard not to take His Trendiness down when he consistently comes out with such rubbish:

A leading African journalist says that Western media still portrays his continent in terms of "disasters, its evil men" and as a "backward continent."

Africa is backward and seems to suffer a great many more disasters and evil men than other continents, and that stuff makes for high-rating TV and copy. As I twice commented earlier, it's the nature of our media - which is a reflection of its market, incidentally. Antony, the pretentious question that headlines your blog - Just what is "the whole truth"? - is worth considering when consuming any form of media, although "Just what is this load of old bollocks" might be more apt in regards to your blog. Anyway, you're no doubt just fine with the media's "It Bleeds, It Leads" ethos if it's effectively working against the American presence in Iraq, but get all flustered when it makes a holy cow of yours like Africa look bad.

Baffour Ankomah says that Western journalists still prefer to see Africa through 19th century eyes, a savage continent with seemingly endless wars and with no connection to Western imperial interests.

Ant, you still prefer to blame superpower struggle for Africa's modern problems, even though most of Africa has been independent for 50 years or more, and the equivalent of eight Marshall Plans spent on the continent's development. And you still prefer to shield blame from the great majority of African leaders who allowed themselves to be bought with cash and weapons to maintain the various shades of kleptocracy they ran (and still run) throughout the continent. And you STILL prefer to divorce an African citizen's personal responsibility towards choosing or demanding appropriate leaders with the outcomes produced by African leaders.