A Place to Stand

Interesting to compare & contrast western media treatment of Bobby Fisher & Garry Kasparov.

Bobby was imprisoned for the purely political crime of visiting another nation. Our media kept silent.

Kasparov is now the leader of a Russian political party that virtually none of the locals actually vote for but receives generous funding from western "non"-governmental organisations & the media not only devote acres of newsprint to his statements but criticise the Russian government for their treatment of him - despite the fact that the Russians never did anything remotely as nasty as imprisoning him on political grounds.

The obituaries have played down his imprisonment & said that he was a bit of a loony for thinking the US government was oppressing him. We may expect to see him downplayed further until he becomes effectively an unperson.

Back when he was beating the Soviet chess grandmasters he was lauded by our media but they discarded him when tried to be a free human being rather than a propaganda tool.

Though we should expect a US hero to get more publicity than a Soviet one Fisher has 326,000 mentions on Google & Kasparov 549,000