Making sense of the spin

Chris Wells takes an eclecticeklektyczny excursion through what the world's English-language press are saying about Poland.

Politicians seldom make entirely unambiguousniedwuznaczny statements, but when newspaper editors take what they say and try to squash it into their own agendaprogram polityczny, the results can be wildly differing conclusions drawn from the same starting point.

Last week, Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller made the following quote, which was carried by numerous newspapers worldwide: "We [Poland] cannot turn a blind eyeto turn a blind eye: przymykać oko to the fact that the Spanish and others are leaving Iraq. The final decision about the withdrawalwycofanie się will be agreed and thought over, but the problem does exist."

Now, you might inferto infer: wnioskować, particularly from the idiom 'not to turn a blind eyeto turn a blind eye: przymykać oko,' that Poland is becoming skeptical about the presence of its troops in Iraq. The second sentence would seem to confirm that Polish withdrawalwycofanie się is now definitely on the cardsto be on the cards: zanosić się na coś.

However, when the quote was beamed around the world, copywriters took their readers' considerations into account. The headline in a British paper read, 'Anxious Poland may follow Spain's lead and withdraw troops,' with the subsequent story playing on the uncertainty aspect and highlighting ordinary Poles' fears of a terrorist attack. The article made the latter point quite successfully by including a quote from Poland's intelligence chief, saying, "We have untested structures and zero experience in reacting to such events. The shock society could experience in the aftermathnastępstwo of a terrorist attack could have incalculablenieobliczalny political and social consequences." Indeed.

Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, a national U.S. paper came up with, 'Official: Polish troops to stay in Iraq.' This story contained exactly the same quote from Miller, but instead poured cold water on the most obvious inferencewniosek, wnioskowanie by immediately following that with another quote from his spokesman, who said, "Poland will be in Iraq as long as necessary, until the situation there is stabilized" (this second quote being absent from the UK paper). In the article, Polish fears of a terrorist attack were not mentioned; instead, the tone was much more moderateumiarkowany, powściągliwy.

This would seem to be a typical case of perspective: For UK readers, the glass is half-empty, but for Americans, the glass must surely be half-full. The contrast is starkerstark: jaskrawy when you consider the absence in the U.S. article of the raised threat of an attack on Polish soil.

Polish newspapers have been carrying more and more stories about this prospect recently, a fact seeminglypozornie not lost on all of the English-language media.

However, in unscientific research, when questioning individuals about a possible attack, this writer has met with reactions ranging from the stoic to outrightcałkowity, zupełny hilaritywesołość, głośny śmiech. Poles will say that their country simply isn't significant enough to warrantto warrant: usprawiedliwiać it; not important at all. Nevertheless, with Spain's withdrawalwycofanie się, followed by other countries, with popular opposition to the occupation increasing all the time, and, of course, with American military conduct proving to be the best recruiting sergeantsierżant al-Qaida could ever have hoped for, Poland's continued presence in Iraq surely won't help to lessen its chances of drawing unwanted attention.

While Leszek Miller et al may not say as much, at the moment Poland appears to be doing an extremely good impression of a sitting duck.

Url źródłowy: http://www.wbj.pl/?command=article&id=22326&type=opi

Słowniczek