Differing headlines on "Oil for Food" probe's findings:

[ztn]

You know, it really makes your eyes roll to see the same story referred to with contradictory conotations:

ABC News (Reuters)I saw it on Google News:

Oil, Food Probe Faults Annan for Mismanagement (in BIG letters)

then:

Secretary-General Kofi Annan was cleared on Tuesday of interfering in the awarding of a contract in Iraq to a firm that employed his son but he was faulted for not probing possible conflict-of-interest properly.....

Annan, in his own statement, said, "As I had always hoped and firmly believed, the inquiry has cleared me of any wrongdoing," especially on the issue of awarding a contract to a firm that employed his son.

BBC News:

Annan cleared over oil-for-food (headline in big letters)

A report clears UN chief Kofi Annan of wrongdoing over an Iraq oil deal involving his son but queries his handling of the affair.


It's sad to see. Really. I'm not going to go into the hypocracy of how stringent some US observers are to what the UN is doing while ignoring the need for some shred of transparency by our own government.

[cthrumatrix]

1. what is truth now days in our "manufactured news environment"

media is dead....

[Dr.Phool]

2. I turned on the cable news at noon

To try to catch something on Falwell. I swtched to MSNBC, and FOX. I got 2 totally different stories from Paul Volker on each one.

[phoebe]

3. Pat Robertson was pushing the Oil for Food "coverup" so no

doubt his faithful minions in the press are doing his bidding once again..

This admin. has been after Annan for a very long time - he appears to be holding up so far..

www.cbn.com/CBNNews/News/040513a.asp

snip

PAT ROBERTSON: Anyone who thinks it is wise to let the UN supervise Iraq, may want to read the work of our next guest. Claudia Rosett is a senior fellow for the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy, and a former member of the Wall Street Journal's editorial board. In several articles, she's helped to tear the cover off of the Oil for Food scandal. Claudia joins us now from Washington.

ROSETT: Good morning.

ROBERTSON: Could you tell us how extensive this whole thing was? I read $65 billion, I read $100 billion. How much money was involved in it?

ROSETT: The amount that the UN actually supervised was $111 billion worth of business that Saddam had signed on to, including $65 billion in oil sales and $46 billion in relief contracts approved by the United Nations. So $111 billion is pretty much the figure to go with, I think.


snip

ROBERTSON: This gentleman (Benon) Sevan. I understand he is a Cypriote. How much did he get? He was running the program. He was picking up quite a bit on the side himself, wasn't he?

ROSETT: This is not proven. We do not know at this point. What we do know and what you can see, is that the program was horrendously mismanaged, and it's not simply Mr. Sevan, it's his boss, who is the Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who runs the UN, and who would be in charge, say, of the UN going back into Iraq. That is who actually operated -- who was the boss of this program overall.

Of course "Foundation for Defense of Democracy" is anything but. Run by the usual Orwellian right wingers..

[Clark2008]

5. So when is someone going to do a story on Robertson's

Diamonds For Terrorism scandal?

Seriously, Google Robertson and diamond mines and see what pops up for ya.

[Nikki Stone 1]

4. Great comparison. Such a clear bias, even against the facts

And I won't comment on Pat Robertson except to say that he hasn't changed.

[ztn]

6. yep. Just imagine how many times a day this happens.

This one just stuck out because I happened to read the BBC one first. A little later, I went to google and saw the "opposite" headline. Had I not known better (as many do not), I'd have just skimmed the headline and moved on.

So starts the spin of 2 sets of facts....kinda like the saddam/al quaida link that never existed BUT assumed true by so many (incredibily). It's the accumulation of little things....

[ngGale]

7. I've noticed headlines can be...

very misleading of late. Trick headlines, for those who only read the headlines!