Tim Blair

THE OLD "EVEN AS"

Crucial to any coverage of anti-Bush protests is the “even as” moment. This is the point at which the malevolent and deceitful behaviour of the President is contrasted with the kindly and democratic actions of angelic protesters, whose wisdom Bush hatefully ignores. We see a typical “even as” in this report by Richard W. Stevenson of The New York Times, here syndicated in The Marin Independent Journal:

Bush, making the first full-scale state visit here since Woodrow Wilson in 1918, later attended an ornate state dinner at Buckingham Palace. Even as anti-war protesters gathered outside the palace, the Queen and the president exchanged warm toasts inside.

Did I say “typical”? This is a brilliant “even as”, suggesting that Bush and the Queen should perhaps moderate the warmth of their toasts due to the proximity (and moral authority) of anti-war protesters chanting in nearby streets. The same “even as” appears in Stevenson’s piece for The Arizona Republic:

Bush, making the first full-scale state visit here since Woodrow Wilson in 1918, later attended an ornate state dinner at Buckingham Palace. Even as war protesters gathered outside the palace, the queen and the president exchanged warm toasts inside.

So far, so bad. But here’s something interesting; even as The Arizona Republic and The Marin Independent Journal run Stevenson’s “even as” line, The New York Times itself has dropped it. This is from the NYT’s current version of the same story:

Mr. Bush, making the first full-scale state visit by an American president, later attended an ornate dinner at Buckingham Palace. As antiwar protestors gathered outside the palace, the queen and the president exchanged warm toasts inside.

Google News picks up the NYT story on an even as search, so possibly an earlier take carried the original line. Subsequent deletion of the “even as” indicates that the NYT is alert to its reporter’s bias.

Or perhaps an editor saw David Carr’s pictures of the protesters to whom Bush was expected to defer.

Posted by Tim Blair at November 22, 2003 02:38 AM