Today's Chron news story undermines yesterday's port editorial
Does any major newspaper in America have a more hapless editorial board than the Houston Chronicle? It's hard to think of one.
Yesterday the Editorial LiveJournalists wrote about the port-selling brouhaha, the media's latest hysteria:
The government of the United Arab Emirates simply isn't the same as private British company ownership. Letting the UAE buy a company running shipping operations in Baltimore, New York, New Jersey, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia might turn out all right, but why take the chance?
There was a huge omission in this editorial: Dubai Ports World would also take control of stevedoring operations at the Ports of Beaumont and Corpus Christi, where "Almost 40 percent of the Army cargo deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom flows through [...]." Talk about missing a big Texas angle!
But setting all that aside, today the Chronicle's Bill Hensel Jr. covers the local/Texas angle and then proceeds to render the editorial moot:
But the planned takeover of the huge British company by Arab-owned Dubai Ports World won't have a significant effect here, Tom Kornegay, the executive director of the Port of Houston Authority, said Wednesday.
"I don't think this changes anything," Kornegay said. "P&O Ports in most places basically does stevedoring services and that is what they do here."
[snip]
In Texas, P&O also performs stevedoring and other services at the ports of Beaumont, Galveston, Corpus Christi, Port Arthur and Freeport.
[snip]
The Houston port oversees operations at all public terminals it operates here, including those where P&O is involved.
P&O also provides container and automobile handling at the port's Barbours Cut terminal.
It doesn't own ports anywhere it operates. It serves the steamship lines and cargo interests by providing stevedoring and terminal operations.
In Beaumont, P&O does some stevedoring work for the Army, which ships military equipment through the port.
"They have had a franchise in the port for a number of years," said Chris Fisher, the port's executive director. "We are very familiar with them."
[snip]
Frank Fogarty, a P&O Ports senior vice president, said the management of the company in North America should remain intact after the acquisition is complete.
"The management that has been operating at P&O Ports will continue to be the same as it always has been," Fogarty said. "Our intention is to abide by all the government's regulations on security and continue to support the United States in that."
So, if the LiveJournalists had waited a day or so, and read their own paper, they would have been more informed on this topic. In theory, anyway.
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: Since Anne's on the topic of hapless, did anyone notice the headline to yesterday's editorial that she links?
PORT SECURITY: Relying on Middle East country to keep our ports safe doesn't make sense
The problem is that nobody is proposing that a country from the Middle East take over port security, a point that is conceded in the editorial itself! Do the Chron headline writers even bother to read stories carefully before slapping a headline on?
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/23/06 11:28 AM | Print |
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