Ethiopian Airline crash

The tragic plane accident that recently occured off the coast of Lebanon (25 Jan 2010) should, one would hope, be reported on evenly in both the French and US press. Unfortunately, I was not surprised to notice the difference in reporting. Don't get me wrong: the facts are exactly the same, as is the pathos conveyed in the piece. What differs, however, is where the make of the doomed plane is mentioned.

Excerps are from the very first word in the article.

In Le Monde dated 25.01.2010 (emphasis mine) :

Un Boeing 737 d'Ethiopian Airlines avec 90 personnes à bord s'est abîmé au large du Liban, lundi 25 janvier vers 2 heures, heure locale (1 heure, heure de Paris), peu après son décollage de Beyrouth. Les équipes de secours libanaises qui participent aux recherches sur le site de l'accident avaient retrouvé dix corps lundi matin. "Jusqu'ici, nous avons retrouvé dix corps sur le site du crash au large des côtes de Naameh, [à environ 12 km] au sud de Beyrouth", a indiqué un responsable du ministère de la défense sous le couvert de l'anonymat.

see the entire article here: http://www.lemonde.fr/proche-orient/article/2010/01/25/catastrophe-aerienne-en-mediterrannee_1296109_3218.html
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In the New York Times online edition, dated: January 24, 2010

An Ethiopian Airlines plane crashed into the Mediterranean Sea on Monday morning shortly after it took off from Beirut International Airport in stormy weather. Officials said that 82 passengers and 8 crew members were on board. “The flight lost contact with Lebanese air traffic controllers shortly after takeoff,” said Wogayehu Terefe, a spokeswoman for Ethiopian Airlines. She added that a rescue crew was headed to the crash site to see if anyone had survived.

Of the 90 people aboard the flight, more than half - 51 people - were Lebanese nationals. The airline also said that 23 passengers were Ethiopian. Two British nationals were also listed as passengers, and the remaining six passengers were Turkish, French, Russian, Canadian, Syrian and Iraqi nationals, the airline said. The eight crew members were Ethiopian.

The plane that crashed, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409, was a Boeing 737 that had been scheduled to take off at 2:10 a.m., according to the company’s Web site, but it actually left at 2:35. The 1,730-mile flight to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital, was scheduled to take 4 hours and 40 minutes.

See the whole article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/25/world/middleeast/25crash.html?ref=world

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I've long had a theory about this, namely that the French press will bury the name Airbus deep in an article while the US press will do the same with Boeing, and that the French press will lead with the name Boeing while the US press will lead with Airbus, depending on the case.

Should I be disappointed? perhaps a little bit, but I am also not surprised in the least.