Afstan: Internal battle at The Globe and Mail

The news staff at "Canada's National Newspaper" have been playing to the max the allegations of prisoner abuse by Canadian troops in Afghanistan. The paper's front page headline two days ago is here.

These were the top of the fold, front page, yesterday:

Hillier orders full inquiry into treatment of detainees
Defence Minister O'Connor vows findings will be made public: 'This is not Somalia'; Professor who found pattern of suspicious injuries doubts military can investigate itself; Military officials will scour Afghanistan looking for 3 men who had been held by soldiers

And today's front pager:

Detainee whistle blower's 'agenda' attacked
Naval officer tried to intimidate him, law professor says

One might conclude that the news staff is, to be generous, "torquing" the story. The editorial board seems to think so too. Today they provide some balance that is fair :

Those allegations of military misconduct

...based on what we do know, there is no evidence that the military is in any way dealing with another Somalia-type scandal of the sort that did such severe damage to the image of the Canadian Forces more than a decade ago. It is also important to remember that Canada is in a full-scale war in Afghanistan against a vicious enemy whose soldiers hide by dressing like ordinary farmers and blending in with civilians. The Taliban do not play by the rules, which makes the soldiers who have to confront suspected members necessarily wary and tense...

These internal battles would be amusing if the spin of the news reporting was not so pernicious.

Update: Bruce Rolston at Flit picks up on Damian's post above and does his own analysis.