John Simpson's Strange Report from Zimbabwe

Robert Mugabe banned most international news organisations from covering Zimbabwe's recent election. The main exception was al-Jazeera, which often does provide objective coverage in spite of its iffy reputation. However, its coverage of Zimbabwe attracted criticism for being biased in favour of Mugabe. Eventually the network fired its correspondent in Zimbabwe, and the Zimbabwean government promptly revoked its permission to operate there.

John Simpson, meanwhile, managed to slip unnoticed into Zimbabwe, to report for the BBC. He sent this report, entitled "Mugabe's Remarkable Comeback". He describes the "extraordinary turnaround" achieved by Mugabe, and says that his opponent has been "completely outmanoeuvred". Simpson describes a "rather well-made advertisement" which lists opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai with Tony Blair, George W Bush and Gordon Brown as members of the "failures club".

Simpson concludes, "It all adds up to a remarkable sweeping victory for a man who only three months ago seemed to be on the ropes. The moral is clear: never underestimate Robert Mugabe's ferocious determination to stay in power, nor the ability of his political opponents to destroy their own case."

The tone of the article seems outrageously biased, but I will ask just one question: how did Tsvangirai "destroy his own case"? It seems obvious to me that he didn't, and would have easily won a proper election.

Perhaps next time, the BBC will be granted the rights to cover events in Zimbabwe, instead of al-Jazeera.