Facts trumping spin

As any seasoned public relations practitioner knows, often to their consternation, the facts have a nasty habit of catching up with spin.

Here’s the headline from an article in today’s online edition of The New York Times: “Rice, in Baghdad, Insists That Iraqis Are ‘Making Progress’”

The article went on to say that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice insisted “that there were new signs of progress in Iraq and that the Bush administration had never sugarcoated its news about the American occupation.”

The article went on to say: “’What the American people see on their television screens is the struggle,’ she said. ‘It is harder to show the political process that is going on at local levels, at provincial levels and indeed at the national level.’ Iraqis, she said, are ‘making progress.’”

But the unpleasant realities --- the facts --- of life in Iraq and Baghdad seemed to catch up with her. According to the Times:

- The military transport plane that brought her to Baghdad was forced to circle the city for about 40 minutes because of either mortar fire or rockets at the airport.

- During her meeting with President Jalal Talabani, the lights went out, a reminder of the city’s erratic — and sometimes nonexistent — electrical service.

- In the few days before her visit at least 21 American soldiers were killed in Iraq.

- And whenever she appeared in public she wore a flak jacket and was flanked by bodyguards carrying machine guns.

So that’s “making progress.”