TT: Editorial response to Austin

What both we and the United States Ambassador, Roy Austin, understand is that he is here to serve the interests of the United States and we, on our part, will not fault him if he interprets that to mean serving the interests of his president, George Bush, the man who appointed him.

What Dr Austin does not seem to appreciate is that no media anywhere has the responsibility to serve as the public relations arm of the United States government and is, certainly, not under any obligation to balance its criticism of the United States with either reportage or comment about its "good works" however numerous and well-meaning in the ambassador's eyes they happen to be.

This is disingenuous. The gist of Ambassador Austin's remarks is that the media must present and not ignore the facts, as they have been doing. In sum, the media's response is, set up a straw man. Read the rest.