AP Finally Allows Criticism of U.S. Hypocrisy on Space Race

Last week I put BBC News in the Doghouse for failing to note the hypocrisy in Washington’s protestations following China’s successful testing of an anti-satellite weapon. I hadn’t paid much attention to the Associated Press’s coverage at the time, but a piece the AP put on the wire today caught my eye.

It seems the AP is willing to share a different perspective on the US’s complaints about China, given that the US has long enjoyed the capacity to take out satellites, not to mention it is declared US policy to dominate outer space and prohibit adversaries from using it when Washington deems their purposes threatening.

But that criticism has to come from a source the likes of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and it has to come only after a barrage of purely one-sided stories expressing official Western and Japanese outrage over China’s test without relaying a single substantive criticism of Washington’s aggressive space-weaponization policy.

And when I say last week’s coverage was bad, I mean textbook bad, without even token context. The only background we’re offered – in some articles – took in the form of acknowledgment that the US has the capability to nix Chinese satellites. But even that came in a paraphrase attributed to an expert who appears to be some kind of US-space-domination cheerleader. Over the course of the week, we heard from an array of US government and think-tank smarties, but nothing from critics of US policy or defenders of China’s action.

We did get lots of assumptions about China’s test. The AP called it a "shot across the bow" of the US space program, and stated: "its [sic] unclear what message China intended to send." Surely China is testing a potential weapon, but why must the AP interpret it as some kind of cryptic message, rather than just a test, the way it would treat such an action by the US.

In fact, you’ll almost never see that kind of speculation about US actions in the corporate media. For instance, when have you seen any mainstream outlet note that the periodic tests of the US’s multibillion-dollar missile-defense shield are "provocative" or "shots across the bow" of potential adversaries like China? A working missile shield would empower the US to launch a first strike against Beijing with impunity, since the retaliatory strike Washington must now fear would be a non-threat. I searched the Nexis database only revealed one such characterization of a US missile-defense test: "North Korea characterized the test as provocation [sic]." (I found numerous articles referring to North Korean tests as "provocative" or a "provocation.")

In one article, the AP called China’s space program "highly secretive" and "military-dominated," but it’s hard to think of better terms to describe the US space program, other than by adding "profit-aware." But you’ll never see "secretive" or "militarized" as adjectives describing NASA – at least not in the AP.

So why does it take Vladimir Putin or Pyongyang to criticize blatant US hypocrisy on this issue? Surely any number of US-based (or civilian Russian or North Korean) analysts could make the critical case far better, from a position of much-greater integrity and respectability – or maybe that’s the problem.

Here are Web versions of the articles I found in the pay-search Nexis to use in this analysis.

U.S. criticizes China over missile test
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6356212,00.html

U.S., allies protest China's anti-satellite test as militarization of space
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/19/ap/world/mainD8MOE9M00.shtml

Sen. Biden warns against space arms race after China test
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=2811331

Anti-satellite weapons test challenges perceptions of China's space program
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/4492269.html

China confirms anti-satellite missile test, says it opposes an arms race
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2007/01/23/international/i001446S50.DTL

Russia's Putin slams U.S. Space Weapons Plans
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6370301,00.html