More of the same

The BBC has apparently decided that we're not getting quite enough of Matt Frei through his regular reports, and so has granted him his own on-line space for a fortnightly "diary".

Today's entry treats us to what could be the worst use of simile ever used by a major media outlet ("...discarded Christmas trees litter the pavements like ejected relatives, plucked bare of baubles, shedding needles and waiting for the District of Columbia Refuse Collection Department"); typical overdramatization ("the National Security Agency, a body so secret it has been nicknamed 'No Such Agency'" - indeed, so secret is the NSA it has its own public web page and extensive history on wikipedia); and, in yet more evidence that an agreeable UK media is being used to hype a presidential bid from an unknown, an admiring profile of Mark Warner ("not impossibly handsome; a self-made telecoms millionaire, who is rich but a lot poorer than John Kerry; running a southern state that voted overwhelmingly for George Bush, is fiercely patriotic and sends almost as many convicts to death row as Texas.")

Frei does deserve credit for his observation that:

I am always struck by how weak the American president is compared to, say, a British prime minister, who can do more or less as he and his party please if they have the right majority in parliament.

This is indeed something that will be lost on many in the UK, as most media coverage here tends to treat the president as though he is the fount from which springs forth all law and policy.

In any event, it seems that this new diary will give Frei the opportunity to offer up his own personal and editorial take on the goings-on in Washington. So how exactly it will differ from his normal reporting remains a bit of a mystery to TAE.