Well, our Neelie is back in the headlines (here, here, here, or here ).
Personally I don’t really see the issue, I think she can express her opinions if she wants to. What intrigued me rather more was the EUPolitix headline on the story.
Dutch EU chief backs ‘ultra-liberal’ Merkel
Now this becomes a topic of interest in the light of the recent debate in the EU Parliament where one of the invited speakers suggested that “a lot of weblogs are tripe“. Quite so, quite so. But what about the conventional press?
“For these very reasons, White (Aidan White, General Secretary of the International Federation of Journalists: Edward) was convinced that the websites of traditional news organisations, such as the BBC or CNN, would continue to be in great demand. “People have little time and want to be reasonably confident that the sites they visit are reliable”
Well said, well said. Which is why I thought it worthwhile to bring to everyone’s attention this latest example of traditional newsite reliability.
As I said, the headline reads: Dutch EU chief backs ‘ultra-liberal’ Merkel.
Now not only does every self-respecting reader of Afoe know (and if they don’t, please read Mrs T’s systematic posting on the issue), that the term ‘ultra-liberal’ is a piece of political illiteracy, normally used as an insult, but they also know that even accepting the opponents version of what it means this is the last thing you could say M. Merkel was.
So where does this suggestion come from? Well not from Neelie Kroes, that’s for sure. Whether M. Kroes considers herself to be ‘ultra liberal’ or not, I am sure she is quite capable of explaining for herself (have we learnt to expect less from her?).
Actually the suggestion comes from Merkel’s SDP opponent Martin Schulz, who states: “As we know, Kroes stands for ultra market-liberalism, so it is not surprising that she supports Merkel who shares the same values.”
Well, shoddy journalism at its worst I would say. I rest my case.
Btw, Aidan White also argues:
“Bloggers will state things without saying where they got them from”.
Which I would have thought was the last thing you could have accused bloggers of, given their tendency to hyper-linking. So, ok, another meme gets off the ground.
Feed: A Fistful of Euros
September 17th, 2005 at 12:46 am
Ultra liberal is not a shoddy term. What is shoddy is how the word liberalisme is used in different countries. In the US it means socialist while in Holland it means a a none religious conservative. The word Ultra liberal seems especially fitting as i see Merkel in the line of Thatcher.