Democracy at work

Just another news story below from Tuesday´s Guardian, but I was impressed by the use of the word ¨helpful¨ in the fifth line. I think Orwell would have been, too. A little gem of Doublespeak.
And the notion that the foreign press should have been in place before there was a story at all - or else forget it - is one that should resonate with the Bush mob. ¨If only we had thought of that before Iraq and Katrina,¨ the likes of Cheney must be soberly pondering over their cornflakes.


Plans to allow journalists into Gaza were aborted yesterday after Israel's military said it was too dangerous to keep staff at the Erez passenger terminal to allow people to cross into the besieged territory.
Israel argues that excluding the international media from Gaza is helpful because foreign journalists are unethical and biased in their reporting.
Foreign journalists are "unprofessional" and take "questionable reports at face value without checking", said Danny Seaman, who heads Israel's government press office, which vets and issues permits to foreign correspondents.
Seaman said it was not Israel's responsibility to give foreign media access to Gaza. "They should have been there in the first place," before Israel began restricting access on 6 November, said Seaman. "We are not going to endanger the lives of our people just to let journalists in."



TODAY´S THOUGHT
We are all here on earth to help others; what on earth the others are here for I don't know.
W. H. Auden