Hoffman gets Huffy ....

An anonymous friend of the blog sent this (slightly edited) note to us regarding Post foreign editor David Hoffman....

In the Kid's Post located on the back cover of the style section, David Hoffman does a Q&A on Chechnya.

On Wednesday, September 8th, 2004, the Kid's Post, located on the back cover of the Washington Post Style Section, featured a Q&A on the hostage crisis in Chechnya by The Post's Foreign Editor David Hoffman.

In it he used extreme descriptions like brutal" and "devastating" in reference to actions taken by the Russian army, but not once did he use the words "terrorism" or "terrorists" to refer to the Chechen "rebels." Also, by describing the Chechnyia situation purely in terms of a territorial independence movement, Hoffman omits the role played by foreign Islamic radicals who view Chechnya as part of the battleground for holy war against the west and who have made terrorizing moderate Chechen politicians and civilians their top priority.

By leaving out key contextual information and appearing to be taking sides on the issue (with the Chechens), Hoffman writes in a way that would be clearly unprofessional coming from a reporter much less the Foreign Editor of a major newspaper. Since the editor calls the shots, we can see who is probably setting the tone for the poor reporting by John Ward Anderson and Molly Moore. It is becoming apparent that Hoffman may have a general bias in favor of so-called "anti-colonial movements," particularly those driven by Arab/Islamic militancy. I believe that Hoffman's views are rigidly leftist, outside the mainstream of American politics and completely permeate the Post's coverage of foreign affairs. It is especially alarming that he is even directing such articles toward our children.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A3916-2004Sep7?language=printer