Leaders of the Free World laugh, drink beer

The featured front page news in our newspaper June 9 was a blown-up color photo of Tony Blair, Angela Merkel and George Bush, leaders of England, Germany and the US, at the G8 Summit, seated relaxed around a table loaded with beer bottles and glasses, and laughing. Bush's head is thrown back in hilarity.

The headline says Western leaders have a laugh at Africa's expense.


Now, support for Africa by the super and near-super powers was weak and disappointing, but that headline is inflammatory and if not inaccurate, at best unverified. Plus, drinking alcohol is a sin here, so the photo was provocative.

As consultants, we do not meddle in content. As US and UK citizens, objecting to anti US or UK actions would only be seen as partisanship anyway. We would be suspected of spying. But accuracy is kind of an important journalistic standard.

So we asked about the front page and how the decision to use it had been made. The chief editor picked out the picture, we were told. And it was just marketing.