US-RUSSIA 'RESET' BUTTON

ARTICLE CRITIQUE

Response to Washington Post "For Russia, More Than A 'Reset'" by Anne Applebaum, March 24, 2009

By Gordon Hahn

The Washington Post continues to publish only those articles, opinion pieces, and editorials that are critical of Russia and oppose, to one degree or another, efforts to ‘reboot’ U.S.-Russian relations.  The opinion piece reviewed below is written by a biased party – the wife of Poland’s Foreign Minister and former Defense Minister.  The question is whether the U.S. public would tolerate a Washington Post, New York Times, or Wall Street Journal columnist (and formerly the opinion page editor) who is the spouse of the Saudi, Israeli, Russian, Mexican, Chinese, Brazilian foreign or defense minister.

To access the full analysis, please click here Download WP_Applebaum_24_Mar_09

Comments

[Mickey]

What a shame you started off that way about Anne Applebaum.
I'm still searching for articles to send to colleagues who are taken in by the anti-Russian western press. This one certainly won't do.

I agree that AA is a consistently biased reporter on Russia. Her husband, Sikorski, is far too often in the Western press (though in part only because he is a rare beast - an English speaking Polish politician). And the Economist, in particular, insist on praising him and proposing him for every international position possible (their regional analyst is a family friend).

But to claim that the Washington Post use her because she is a politician's wife is silly - and worse - commits the very same sin of omission of vital facts that you accuse her and the WP of.
She is a Pulitzer prize winner - for an excellent book on the Russian Gulag. She has been a journalist for many years - long before he husband entered politics or returned to Poland.

Anyone got any better articles I can forward to my Russo-phobe friends without embarrassment?

[Michael Averko]

I sense that RK has learned well from his wife and his DC experience with the AEI.

Overall, his NR articles around the early to mid 1990s were more strident than his comments of late - which in some instances remain slanted in a certain direction.

I've to agree that at times, the ROPV side can take a more accurate and mature look at what's wrong with the English language mass media coverage of the FSU.

[Michael Averko]

The stated "RK" should be "RS" for Radek Sikorski.

[Gordon Hahn]

In response to Mickey's comment

What I said is that papers would not get away with using the wife of Saudi Arabia's, Russia's, Israel's, Iran's or perhaps even Great Britain's foreign minister as its oped editor and then permanent columnist and be able to claim with a straight face objectivity on issues where there is obviouly a conflict of interest. I am sure, however, the Post knows who Applebaum is and therefore, yes, they are using her writings knowlingly and apparently unconcerned about the bias.

[Michael Averko]

Recall Amanpour-Rubin during the Clinton era. Overtly Sorosian when it came to covering former Yugoslavia.

On the other hand, Carville-Matalin (pardon any misspells) show that the significant other can have a noticeably enough different take.