The coverage of the vote in the British Parliament is fascinating. First off: Blair won the support he wanted from the Commons (indeed, by a three-to-one margin), but also faced a rebellion by his members of his own party via an attempted anti-war amendment (which failed).
Legislators voted 434-124 in favor of a government-sponsored motion that expresses support for working through the United Nations and urges Saddam Hussein to seize a “final opportunity” to comply fully with the Security Council’s demands.They rejected by a tally of 393-199 an amendment to the motion which said “the case for military action against Iraq (is) as yet unproven.”
via Sfgate.com
The amazing thing is that if one looks at a list of headlines via Google News one find a most remarkable phenomenon: the US sources note that Blair won a victory, but the European sources note that he suffered a “rebellion” or a “revolt” or that “MP’s voted against the use of force.”
This is a rather remarkable illustration how just headline writing can be a significant way to spin a story. Further analysis of the headline is warranted.
August 10th, 2024 at 10:25 am