Media Bias By AP Correspondent

(discussion from USENET soc.culture.ethiopia.misc newsgroup) > Misgana wrote: > As most of you probably are doing, I am going from website to website trying to > locate the most current information. What I have realized it that there is a > subtle but persistent bias in favor of Eritrea, especially at CNN and AP. > Reuters seems to be more objective (and by "objective" I don't mean > pro-Ethiopia but simply unopinionated)

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Misgana: The main AP reports from Eritrea have originated from a person named Julie Stewart. I have also noticed that her reports seemed very one-sided. For example, she is the only one who claims (without giving evidence) that 2 planes were shot down on June 5.

Well it turns out that she was teaching Journalism at Asmara University, and became a "stringer" attached to AP after the war started. She has now been evacuated, proving that she never was a real journalist. Here is the news clip:

``I'm very unhappy to leave. I did want to stay but when they attacked the airport then I knew it was time to go,'' said Julie Stewart of Columbus, Ohio, who had been teaching journalism at Asmara University.

``Following the attacks on Mekele I expect the Ethiopians to bomb civilian targets in Asmara,'' she said at the airport.

By the way, has there been independent confirmation that even one jet was shot down on June 5? I have not seen any wreckage or news of the crash site. Also the Ethiopian embassy in Sweden states that no planes were shot down June 5.

- Dagmawi