What the Media Won't Tell You About Dubai and the Ports

The on-going coverage of the P&O Ports acquisition by Dubai Ports Worldwide is a bit surprising to many in the maritime world. Surprising, maybe disturbing, is the complete lack of investigative skills media giants like CNN (especially), who have covered it incessantly, and other networks have exhibited throughout their coverage.

I am not suggesting it isn’t prudent to look at these issues, but if national coverage is going to dedicate hours of air time to a highly-specialized industry such as international shipping, it is incumbent on reporters, anchors and producers to actually learn a little more about the subject they are covering. Instead, they sensationalized something as mundane as the sale of an international company and in doing so, tossed an emotional Molotov cocktail into the viewing audience, sat back and fed on the panic. It is highly irresponsible and just plain bad reporting.

Most erroneous of the statements which have continued to scream across headlines is “U.S. Gives Control of Six U.S. Ports to UAE.” For anyone in the maritime industry, or who has any connection to it, that statement, if it weren’t so inflammatory, would be laughable. P&O Ports is a stevedoring company that leases land within port property, they own only forklifts and top loaders which facilitate the transfer of containers for over-the-road transport, utilize port-owned cranes to remove cargo from ships and employ labor. They have no authority for overall port management. The similar example would be a foreign car manufacturer operating a factory in the U.S. that builds cars and employs U.S. workers to build them.

Port security, either landside or water, software the runs the gates into the terminals, port access – among other security issues -- are all coordinated by the port administration, or authority, in each state and/or municipality along with the Coast Guard and Customs. There are approximately 14 terminals at the Port of Baltimore – each run or managed by a different entity, some public, some private. P&O Ports, which currently leases its space from the Maryland Port Administration, falls under the jurisdiction of the Port of Baltimore, not the other way around. That was never going to change. The same would be true for the five other ports in question.

Few people interviewed were actually maritime executives – or even journalists who cover the industry for trade journals. Why? Because those industry representatives, for whom this is every day ‘stuff,’ knew the coverage was ‘much ado about nothing.’ Interviewing them would have taken the wind out of the firestorm.

Politicians on both sides of the aisle have been disappointing. Many of these same politicians take regular port tours in these various states. They’ve either learned nothing or are seizing the moment to grandstand before a local election. They were clever to jump on the wave of hysteria sweeping their constituency, ordering further investigations whereby typically none are warranted. No one expects the average American to know where their flip-flops, computer keyboards, clothing or household goods come from or how they get here. Maritime officials don’t expect soccer moms at Wal-Mart to contemplate the complexities of foreign flagged ships or bills of lading. What we all should expect, however, is our news outlets use due diligence toward the subjects they cover, no matter how complex, and to consult the experts who know the topic better than they do. I am now curious about some of the other industries they erroneously cover and how accurate their reporting really is.

Lisa Shenkle
Guest columnist
Former Director of Communications, Port of Baltimore
Freelancer, Journal of Commerce and Shipping Digest