Where was the business media? (Dubai Ports World)

[Miss Authoritiva]

The business media's hide-in-plain-sight coverage of Dubai Ports World's pursuit of P&O

By Grace Nearing at Scriptoids

Just watch the video of the February 22, 2006, White House press briefing and look for the nanosecond's worth of twinkle in Scott McClellan's eyes as he answers a question about the Dubai Ports World deal. It happens when he tells the press gaggle and, by extension, the US media, "Hey, you fucked up. You weren't paying attention."

Last year -- I think in any given year, there's some 50 to 300 transactions that go through this national security review process. And this process is designed with one thing in mind: to make sure that there are no national security concerns. Last year, there were some 65 transactions that went through this process. This was a matter that was reported in the press going back to, I think, late October. The financial press was covering this possible transaction….

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An advanced Google News search for P&O + Dubai + ports + bid location:USA reveals some astonishingly skimpy coverage in the American media, even in the financial press. And that surprisingly skimpy coverage about the potential sale of P&O to DPW featured even skimpier coverage of exactly what DPW would be getting if the deal went through, particularly a significant presence in major American ports.

It seems that the American financial press was disinclined to go into much detail about the possible deal -- why generate public interest and risk derailing a multi-billion dollar transaction? And nobody else in the American media seemed interested in following up on the Reuters, BBC, and Forbes stories about something called P&O and something called DPW.

>>> Continued at Scriptoids

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. It's not entirely surprising

The American ports are only 6% of P&O's turnover. There wasn't any coverage about 'security implications' anywhere in the world - none of the other countries have raised any objections.