Blog Bites, a regular Friday feature at Emirates Today ePaper, has grown rather tame. Edgy posts are no longer used. Warm and fuzzy ones are. One might go far as to say, erm, ET's Friday Blog Bites.
What's that all about? American values like freedom of the press?
What's that all about? American values like freedom of the press?
posted by John B. Chilton at 3/09/2006 10:49:00 PM
4 Comments:
Well it is a government owned newspaper, seeing as they gave people 'almost' freedom of speech, I think it came as a surprise that every single newspaper turned into a 'whine about this' and 'whine about that', from what I hear the 7days 'letters to the editor' column has grown hugely, covering every single bitch n' moan aspect of Dubai possible.
But what do people expect? Expats have 0 power, so all they can do is whine.
Not content with having overall rather nasty newspapers "tarnishing" the image of the UAE, they seem to have launched Emirates Today in a hope of improving the image of the UAE and focusing on more positive aspects, kind of a waste, seeing as it is only read in the UAE, and is one of the few newspapers that doesn't even appear on google news because of it's websites format. Someone wrote something in 7days about the editor resigning/being fired for not conforming to his superiours wishes of not portraying the UAE in anything but a positive manner.
Most entertaining in BlogBites (should be called Blog Bytes) was how they censored someones posting (I believe it was keefieboy) and removed the word jerk and replaced it with something like 'j***', then a few weeks back, they quoted Dubai Drama Queen's posting about someone trying to bring a bow and some arrows through customs, while unknowingly referencing another posting about vibrating marital aids.
It seems that customs personnel at Dubai airport are really having to be vigilant these days. Following on from Mercy's failed rabbit rescue mission, the uniforms had to pull over a modern-day Robin Hood. Clover's new acquaintance Will got stopped a couple of days ago when entering the country with a bow and a quiver full of arrows.
ahhh..... that one goes under ye old "double standards" file.
I can't help but think they have never and will never quote me because of the amount of swearing, pessimism and negativity, or what I like to call "realism" involved in my posts /: (or maybe my blog just sucks and i'm being narcissistic /:)
They should begin quoting Dengrous Boy and Balushi, that would provide a bit more "balance".
John if youre still awake,. please check this out
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=newsOne&storyID=2006-03-09T185825Z_01_N09169509_RTRUKOC_0_US-SECURITY-PORTS.xml
And let's not forget them censoring me, removing the entire fking point of my post: "fat arab men smoking" became "fat men smoking" - when the whole point is that this region (wrongly) tolerates smoking in public areas - in this instance a health expo!!!!! - whereas in Europe and other regions, it's increasingly banned.
Try Milan airport - they don't even have dedicated smoking areas/lounges/capsules - there is literally nowhere to smoke unless you leave the terminal and go outside. People smoking at a health expo in Singapore, or Geneva, or Los Angeles - while sitting on booths for cancer hospitals and heart disease - would literally be unthinkable.
It's possible they had the best intentions to start with but started getting complaints from various high-up people.
Post a Comment
<< Home