In the article from the BBC entitled “NATO official clarifies Kabul child safety comment”, the author discusses a senior NATO official, Mark Sedwell, and his response to articles that came out about him stating that the Afghan capitol of Kabul was a safer city than places such as “London, New York or Glasgow or many other cities”. Sedwell, who is the Senior Civilian Representative in NATO, made these comments to a group of children when discussing their safety in combination with what was going on in Afghanistan, however he holds firm that is words were taken out of context. Sedwell claims he meant it in a manner of explaining how the violence in Afghanistan was changing, and that some of the major cities, such as Kabul, were much safer than other places in the country because of the security within them. However, his words are proven to be false later in the article by first hand accounts from children who say there are bombs going off all the time within the city.
This is something I would classify as being a form of free media. Free media is the idea that no matter what the media, in this case the BBC, is doing, they are giving free promotional coverage. This goes along the lines with the belief that no publicity is bad publicity. Although this article at first makes Sedwell seem apologetic and lets him explain himself, at the end it goes into details about why he is wrong, and simply makes him look like an idiot. However, his name is now out there, and some people who have never heard of him, like myself, now know who Mark Sedwell is, the Senior Civilian Representative in NATO.
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