Context

Over at Oxblog someone has their knickers in a twist over supposed twisting of Blair's words. Oxblog says:

So, here's what Tony Blair said (as he responded to a question asking whether he would continue to serve as prime minister in a third Labour term in government): "There is a big job of work to do - my appetite for doing it is undiminished."

And here's what the BBC reported in its lede: "Mr Blair, who said his appetite for power remained 'undiminished'...."

And not to let a good distortion go, the website then links to the story thusly: "Tony Blair sidesteps questions on the David Kelly affair - but says his appetite for power is "undiminished"."

I really don't understand what the problem is here. The context, as Oxblog makes clear, is that he was responding to a timely question, given his record breaking length in office, and I really don't see how any reasonable reader would think the BBC was claiming that Blair was owning up to megalomaniacal tendencies.

Nits, nits, everywhere....

But, in any case, I wonder why there's very little comment by the right wing blogosphere about the undue influence of Spanish and Italian governments on their state run televisions. I'm always a bit amused by the tendency to simultaneously criticize the BBC for being anti-Blair while alluding to it somehow being a problem of state run television. Hello?! Whatever problems they seem to think the BBC has, it clearly has everything to do with their independence from the Blair government. On the other hand, under Aznar and Berlusconi the state run newscasts have increasingly become cheerleaders for their respective parties.