How al-Jazeera and the BBC Covered a Successful US Anti-Missile Test

Looking at the headlines for the September 1 test of the missile defense system, I decided to look at how two reliably biased and un-American news outlets covered the news: the BBC and al-Jazeera.

While the former nudged viewers with a bit of bias in the headline "US missile defence test 'success,'" al-Jazeera conceded the test went off without a hitch.

"U.S. successfully tests missile shield," it read.

Oddly enough it was the BBC that noted in its write-up that the test did more than Missile Defense Agency planners hoped it would, albeit towards the end of its story:

The US test was designed to determine whether the system could distinguish the target warhead from its launcher or a decoy.

MDA spokesman Rick Lehner said the agency had been hoping for a “close approach”, with the interceptor manoeuvring itself near to the warhead.

The actual intercept was “a bonus”, he said.

But it was al-Jazeera that noted the strategic purpose of the missile defense system, something the BBC left out in its story:

The US spends over $10 billion a year to develop the missile program that is designed to shoot down limited numbers of long-range nuclear missiles fired from states like Iran or North Korea.