If you ever wanted rock-hard evidence of the difference between US and British journalism, take this correction from yesterday’s New York Times: “An Op-Ed article on Friday about the playoff hopes of the Cubs and the White Sox incompletely described the life cycle of cicadas in Chicago. While some have appeared after 13 years underground, most emerge after 17 years.”
It’s revealing to see the differing treatments of the failure of the WTO talks in Cancun. According to the Financial Times, and most other comment I’ve seen in Europe, the key sticking point was Europe’s insistence on pushing the so-called Singapore issues of investment and competition rules.
In contrast, The New York Times squarely points the finger of blame at US intransigence in the shadow of next year’s presidential election.
I suspect both the Europeans and the Americans were too self-involved to keep sight of the bigger victory that might have been at hand.