In 1971, the Pitttsburgh Pirates won the World Series. A number of very drunk people celebrated downtown, pretty much the way they do every year at the St. Patrick's day parade, except that some of the ladies present took their tops off. The rest of the town was treated to several hundred idiots blowing their horns, encouraged by several hundred other idiots standing in their front yards holding signs that said, "The Pirates Won The Pennant! Honk Your Horn!"
A few days after all this happened, a friend who was staying in London called me and gasped in worried tones, "Are you all right?"
"Why wouldn't I be all right?" I asked. "I heard about the riot," she said. "What riot!" "After the baseball game!"
I have lived all my life in the city of Pittsburgh. If there had been a riot, I would have noticed. The British press can color facts too, and they are particularly fond of doing so when covering stories about the United States. I'm no friend of George W. But I know better than to trust the Brits.