The first sentence in Allam's piece caught my eye: "President Bush wraps up a week long tour of the Middle East Wednesday, leaving many Mideast political observers mystified as to the purpose of the visit."
Pardon me for being skeptical. Who are these "mystified observers"? Allam never identifies them.
I did some quick research to see if Bush's purpose was some kind of hidden secret. Maybe the Bush administration was trying to keep the "political observers" in the dark.
A little research shows the purpose of Bush's trip was widely reported. Reuters interviewed Bush 1/3/08 and Bush explained 3-fold purpose of the trip. President Bush gave an interview to foreign print media at the White House on 1/4. (Transcript here.) Prior to leaving on his trip, Bush gave 3 interviews to TV media in the Middle East. You can read the transcripts here, here, and here. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice gave interviews to BBC Arabic Television (transcript here) as well as Israel's Channel 10 (transcript here). Rice also spoke to the press aboard Air Force One enroute to Kuwait on 1/11 (transcript here). BBC wrote about the purpose of Bush's trip on 1/7.
Hey, even Al Jazeera explained to their readers the purpose of Bush's trip. Here is an excerpt from Al Jazeera's 1/9 piece on the Bush trip:
However, Dana Perino, a White House spokeswoman, said Iran "is certainly not the main reason for the trip". "The main reason for the trip is to advance these negotiations and make sure that those are on the right track, as well as to talk about the president's commitment to the region."
How embarrassing that Al Jazeera's readers get better information than McClatchy's readers.
No wonder Hannah Allam never identified the "mystified observers" in her article - they don't exist. It's dishonesty like this that explains why the media's credibility is tanking.
Update: A CNN reporter was able to understand the purpose of Bush's trip: "One of the stated goals of Bush's trip was to garner support for the Mideast peace process from Arab allies."
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