Several news sources carried an AP story about Chevron’s new office in Ashgabat. The IHT, CNN Money, Turkish Weekly, and others all duly ran the meager geopolitical analysis provided to them by the AP, namely the recent death of Turkmenbashi and the importance of natural resources in the region. The story noted twice that the source was “state-run television,” as if imply that the information isn’t untrustworthy and yet wasn’t worth fact checking either. Sources from Germany managed even less information about the country and the implications of such an event. Meanwhile, Chevron has yet to post any press releases about the partnership.

TOL has already pointed out the lack of depth in such coverage and promises further analysis soon. As an addendum, this particular news bite seems characteristic of most widespread (at least English language) news coverage of Central Asia, which tends to come from a single source and make brief, broad generalizations about geopolitics. Even more typical, the story has quickly been supplanted by stories about the ridiculous resurgence of personality-cult-like behavior in Berdymukhamedov’s jewel bedecked gift to himself. But who would realistically expect the media to care more about Chevron or the Caspian pipeline than a 2 pound gold pendant?

Picture: AP Photo/ Alexander Vershinin (from Washington Post)