Reuters SitRep: Quality Review
Announcer and Editor sit down for a chat about the recent bulletin
Published: 2024-02-08
The ratings agency alerted Announcer's media organisation's business unit that ratings for the recent bulletin were below average. This triggered an automatic review of the episode for Announcer's Editor.
A limited transcript of that debrief is provided in the interest's of accountability and maintaining public confidence in the media organisation's "fair and accurate reporting" requirements.
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To Quality Control,
In accordance with our ISO 27001 Quality mantra, "Even if we can't be accountable to the public, we need to be accountable internally to improve our processes", please find attached our debrief.
Ed
Attached
Editor: You know the drill, Announcer. Let's have a look at the transcript and identify areas for improvement. Usual story, no implication about competence. We're just looking to get better at what we do, both of us.
What do you see?
Announcer: Well, the biggest problem was probably that we either had a loss of comms with Reuters or it was ignoring us.
Editor: Sad, but true. But, its a contractor and we can't apply our standards. For some dumb reason management continue to force us to deal with it. So, I agree, but lets ignore that for now.
Announcer: [points to the following section]
R: Diplomatic efforts were "being made to try and find a climb down for the Houthis that would enable [the] situation to improve and to move away from the kinetic aspect" of the Red Sea crisis, US Special Envoy for Yemen Tim Lenderking said on Tuesday.
A: Where did the US dig him up from, Reuters? And what is a "climb down"?
R: Mr Lenderking, in recorded comments to the Middle East Institute, also said "we need to see serious de-escalation in Gaza" and that Secretary of State Antony Blinken was working very hard on that.
A: Any details on what 'hard' means for Blinkenlights, Reuters?
A [to E]: I failed here to provide an observation by question. That would have been that Reuters is introducing Lenderkind and tying him to Blinken, which implies that Lenderkind is involved in diplomacy, and that that diplomacy amounts to statements being issued by 'recorded comments', which is not diplomacy at all, but feeding an echo chamber. The audience was not informed that none of Reuters’ reporting supports the implication that the US is 'working very hard' on diplomacy.
E: Agreed, and a good observation. Would the audience have also benefited from knowing what the Middle East Institute is, and where it fits in to the context of events being reported?
A: Yes, I suppose that was an error, though time constraints make this a challenge. How about:
“The Middle East Institute is not an institute but a Think Tank in Washington. They claim to have existed since 1946, though the 'About' page at their web site was first imaged by Archive.org in 2008. Since then that page was quiet until 2018, which is still their copyright date, though it becomes very active thereafter.”
“Their policy position on the current war between the US and Anṣār Allāh is summarized by their introduction to their most recent blog post/article on the topic:”
The Houthi threat to freedom of navigation and the free flow of commerce in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden challenges a core and enduring U.S. interest in the Middle East. U.S. airstrikes seeking to degrade the military capabilities of the Houthis are necessary but insufficient.
They are, thus, a fully aligned component of the US blob which McGovern’s beautifully labelled as the MICIMATT complex
E: Yes, good, though I agree with your concern for time constraints. Any more?
A: Yeah. Total fail on the next section. [Announcer points to]
R: The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency and British maritime security firm Ambrey said the southbound Greek-owned bulk carrier Star Nasia had been targeted while heading through the Maritime Security Transit Corridor about 53 nautical miles south-west of Aden, en route from the US to India.
A: Aaaah, so the carrier has US goods aboard, does it?
The bigger issue here is what are UKMTO and Ambrey? Reuters is claiming that they both 'said' the same thing; that the 'Star Nasia had been targeted'. What do you think, Ed?
E: Excellent. Look, we journos would really like to put some pressure on the bean counters in management about this Reuters thing. Our question is why is our organisation paying so much for this one sided crap instead of investing that money in hiring some young journalists. Then we could produce better 'fair and accurate reporting' by exposing this Reuters thing for the mouthpiece it obviously is.
So, tell me about the UKMTO and Ambrey.
A: The UKMTO is a civilian arm of the UK Royal Navy, an agency, a military NGO. Their web domain gives it away, ukmto.org rather than ukmto.gov.uk. Their About page states:
United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) is a Royal Navy capability with the principal purpose of providing an information conduit between military which (includes/security forces) and the wider international maritime trade. UKMTO delivers timely maritime security information, often acting as the primary point of contact for merchant vessels involved in maritime incidents or traveling within the Voluntary Reporting Area (VRA).
The issue here is not that what they are saying is inaccurate, or that it is not a good idea to have an information exchange mechanism between the Royal Navy and UK commercial shipping. The issue is that Reuters does not provide context.
As for Ambrey, they're a UK, commercial, maritime "risk management" company whose website appeared in 2003. They state that their "solutions" are "intelligence-led". Given that one is an agency of the UK's Royal Navy and the other is a maritime security "solution provider" and that, as Reuters asserts, they're both stating that Star Nasia was targeted, then we can conclude that they are both extensions of the UK's naval intelligence.
E: Spot on. And what does that tell us?
A: The Reuters' sources for their commentary on the situation in the Red Sea, apart from the quote from Anṣār Allāh are from actual parts of, or offshoots of, the UK or US who are belligerents in the conflict.
E: And ...
A: This is bloody well not "fair and balanced" reporting!
E: On that, we are in total agreement. Good job, Announcer.
Now, what are our political objectives?
A: To provide "fair and accurate" reporting?
E: C'mon Announcer, political objectives.
A: Oh. To use more effectively use our government funding to both provide better reporting than these narrative outfits by hiring young journos who could run rings around them, and to continue this nation’s long tradition of producing skeptical, informative journalists.
E: Atta boy. Who have we just put up on our wall to watch over us?
A: John Pilger.
E: Any comments for me, Announcer?
A: Yeah. You keep them off me, and I'll keep at this.
E: You, Announcer, have just quoted to me the definition of a manager's job. I'll send our Quality Review to the bean counters.
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Sources
Middle East Institute, About, Middle East Institute, no date of publication
A Strategy for Countering the Houthi Threat at Sea, Kevin Donegan, Mick Mulroy, Sam Mundy, Bilal Y. Saab, Joseph L. Votel, Middle East Institute, 2024-02-05
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Reuters SitRep, YesXorNo, 2024-02-08
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