A newsworthy sound bite from a rock music idol on a pressing world
issue may be just the hook an evening news producer prays for, but
it doesnt excuse a lack of balance or thorough reporting. The
February 2 World News Tonight featured such an item when anchor
Elizabeth Vargas reported that Bono of the group U2 commanded a
different kind of stage today. He headlined the National Prayer
Breakfast.
Vargas added that the Irish musician used his speech at
the event attended by President Bush and several members of Congress
to call for an increase in federal spending on foreign aid.
To be truly meaningful, Bono said, the extra spending
must amount to an additional one percent of the federal budget.
Following the clip, Vargas cited President Bushs
praise for the U2 lead singer as an amazing guy. The report,
however, omitted the perspective that the problem with foreign aid
may lie in corrupt governments, not supposedly stingy spending by
America.
Last summer free market-oriented think tanks such as
the Cato Institute and The Heritage Foundation issued reports
critical of African foreign aid as ineffective and wasteful.
Catos Ian Vazquez wrote in the July 8, 2005, Washington Times
that in Africa aid has harmed development by supporting governments
whose policies have actually impoverished people. The problem, the
Project on Global Economic Liberty director argued, was that [e]ven
when aid is supposed to promote policy change, it fails to do so.
Countries promise reform, receive donor largesse, then introduce
half-hearted reforms or fail to do so altogether.
Two days earlier,
Dr. Nile Gardiner of
The Heritage Foundation cited Nigeria as a perfect example of
a corrupt government squandering natural resources and thereby
impoverishing its people. Nigerias Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission, set up in 2002, recently revealed that the countrys
previous rulers misused or stole 220 billion ($400 billion) in the
period between independence from Britain in 1960 and 1999, when the
country returned to civilian rule, the former advisor to Baroness
Margaret Thatcher.
The Business & Media Institute previously documented media
bias on foreign aid in Crazy
8s, a study on coverage of Bonos crusade during the G-8 Summit
and Live 8 concerts urging America to give more taxpayer money.
ABC Stuck in a Moment of One-Sided Coverage
February 3rd, 2006 2:00 PM
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