GDN stoops to another low

Just in case the “journalists” in the local rag forgot what Journalistic Ethics actually are, here’s a good place to start. However, I’m sure that both “ethics” and “journalism” is far from their minds. What’s closest, is enriching themselves via their chosen “contribution” to Bahrain’s development and political well-being: brown-nosing.

WASHINGTON: The GDN has been praised for its involvement in Tuesday’s meeting on Bahrain’s human rights record at Georgetown University.

One report, by US observers present at the event, singles out the newspaper for praise, describing the highlight of the evening as the moment discussions turned into a debate when GDN news editor Robert Smith challenged Human Rights Watch’s Joe Stork, who had earlier played down the terrorist threat facing Bahrain as a few instances of tyre burning.

“You refer to the violence and say it is not hi-tech and almost play it down,” said Mr Smith.

[link]

Oh for all that’s holy Bob! What the hell were you on? Your job is to report the news. The government has it’s own MUCH more powerful and highly paid stooges to do its bidding and doesn’t need YOU to leap to its defence! Your job, my dear friend, is to enjoy the paid trip to the World’s capital, “wash your liver” as we fondly say in Bahrain by enjoying the scenery and breath of fresh, free, and unencumbered air, report the news – as I presume this is what you’re actually paid to do – and shy away from making the news!

What happened? Your chairman’s charm and specific brand of wet brown-nosing got to you? Have you also forgotten that other than using your sad excuse for the destruction of some trees somewhere in the world and actually putting what you produce to good use by lining the bottoms of bird cages, your precious “publication” is nothing more than a brown-paper envelope sans creativity and “news”?

You might also have forgotten that we – the public – actually do peruse real sources of news? Like this one for example, which, coincidentally didn’t “leap” to anyone’s defence and did the honourable journalistic thing by reminding their government of the error of their ways:

ONCE AGAIN a pro-Western Arab regime is engaged in a wave of repression against its domestic opponents — and once again, the Obama administration has been struggling to find its voice. The subject this time is Bahrain, an island emirate in the Persian Gulf that is host to the U.S. Fifth Fleet. For most of the past decade the country’s ruling al-Khalifa family has been boasting of its steps toward democracy; parliamentary elections are scheduled for Saturday. But Bahrain’s Sunni rulers are worried about the country’s restless Shiite majority, especially as the power of nearby Iran waxes.

When Shiite youth began staging street demonstrations this summer, the regime seized the opportunity to crack down. Hundreds of suspected activists were rounded up, and 23 leaders of the Shiite opposition — including two clerics and a prominent blogger — were charged under anti-terrorism laws with trying to overthrow the government. A human rights group that has received U.S. funding and that was planning to monitor this weekend’s election was taken over by a government ministry.

[Washington Post]

For god’s sake. The shit that’s happening in this country is getting quite old and tiring. And with all the papers and “journalists” abrogating their responsibilities and cowardly propagating the manufactured tripe, this country will never get any better.

Journalism is a sacred duty, not just a vocation to make money off of.