Two Incidents

7.30 AM. I wake, rub my eyes, and get out of bed; I begin the daily ritual of preparing breakfast, bathing, and getting myself ready for work.

As I dutifully complete these morning tasks, I consciously and semi-consciously ingest a vast amount of news; the information almost spews itself from the TV, radio, and the Internet.

This morning’s various media outlets have decided to run the Soham murder trial as their top story. They examine, scrutinise, evaluate, and gratuitously sensationalise the whole sorry affair. A few other ‘top’ stories emerge: the Chancellor’s pre-budget speech is under the spotlight, and we are told that a rugby player will meet the Queen to receive an MBE.

Meanwhile, in a faraway land called Afghanistan, 15 children have lost their young lives. They have been murdered by the most powerful country on the planet. A spokesman for the American military apologises about the ‘two incidents,’ he states…

“The victims were partly to blame for being at a site used by militants to store munitions.” The spokesman goes on to say… “We are not completely responsible for the consequences.”

This story only appears to warrant a few paragraphs on the second pages of some of the newspapers and has the status of being the last news item on the TV and radio.

…by the evening, the story is completely dropped by the UK’s TV news networks.

*Bombing Errors ...

• Dec 2001: 65 killed in bombing of convoy of tribal elders
• April 2002: Four Canadian soldiers killed
• July 2002: 48 killed when bomb hits wedding party
• April 2003: 11 killed by bomb in village of Shkin
• Dec 2003: Nine children killed by bombing in Ghazni Province; six children killed in raid in Paktia province

*Mistakes accepted by US: Source BBC