Last time, I suggested she try some deep breathing before writing about Kazakhstan (along with the seemingly-obligatory Borat reference). Now Ms. Penketh strikes deep into the heart of Georgia:
Russia has scored a tactical victory in its long-term strategic battle with Western-leaning Georgia after a clumsy and brutal crackdown on the opposition by the leader of the “rose revolution” in the former Soviet republic, President Mikheil Saakashvili.
Okay, stop. Right. There. Where is she getting this crap?
Mr Saakashvili said he regretted the use of force, but justified the emergency measures by accusing Russia of mounting a coup behind the scenes. “Russian special services have stepped up their activities in Georgia,” he said in a televised address several hours after riot police using truncheons, rubber bullets, water cannons and tear gas dispersed protesters calling for his resignation.
“A country which has a lot of money and expertise has engaged a machine of lies and a mechanism of provocations,” he said, before announcing the expulsion of three Russian diplomats. Russia retaliated swiftly yesterday by expelling three Georgian diplomats from Moscow.
Ahh, straight from the horse’s mouth, so it would seem. It takes Ms. Penketh until the 11th paragraph to admit that no one has any evidence, or even a reasonable assumption, that Russia had a thing to do with the protests, which had been bubbling for a long time and had their roots in the pro-Western parties. Yet remarkably, she continues to be paid to write on these things. How fitting.
This post was written by...
Joshua Foust – author of 1771 posts on Registan.net.
Joshua Foust is a Fellow at the American Security Project and the author of Afghanistan Journal: Selections from Registan.net. His research focuses primarily on Central and South Asia. Joshua is a correspondent for The Atlantic and a columnist for PBS Need to Know. Joshua appears regularly on the BBC World News, Aljazeera, and international public radio. Joshua is also a regular contributor to Foreign Policy’s AfPak Channel, and his writing has appeared in the New York Times, Reuters, and the Christian Science Monitor. Follow him on twitter: @joshuafoust
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I agree; this kind of nonsense is enough to cross Penketh off any list of journalists worth reading.
On the other hand, the same day’s Independent has a considerably saner piece by Michael Church, who apparently is a music journalist. Having the diplomatic editor outclassed by a music writer doesn’t exactly reflect well on the Indy, but perhaps they could call him a ‘cultural attache’ or something?