BLOOD has been spilled in Bahrain and the vultures are swarming here to feast. Like it or not, Bahrain has made it to the top of every international news organisation's agenda - and the hacks are having a field day.
As a result, every self-serving glory-hunter dying to make their name "reporting" from the front line is pitching up on our doorstep, desperate to get their teeth into the big story of the week.
But where were they last week? Where were they last month? Where were they for the past 10 years?
Ask them and they will regale you with tales of hardship in Iraq, they will impress you with campfire stories from Afghanistan.
But Bahrain is not Iraq, it is not Afghanistan and it is not Egypt.
However, turn on the TV and you would think we were in the middle of a civil war! I've got news for you - we are not.
The only thing I see and hear coming out of the international Press are one-sided reports, authored by self-centred journalists being spoon-fed a diatribe of anti-government propaganda from those seeking to profit from instability and chaos.
No, people should not have died in Bahrain this week. Those losses have been felt by every single person in this country - regardless of sect or nationality.
And yes, people should be allowed to voice their opinion and demonstrate peacefully.
But is it peaceful to chant death to the Royal family and carry guns, swords and knives to a protest? Isn't that treason anywhere in the world?
I hope the same journalists camped out at Pearl Roundabout were filming the thousands who turned out yesterday to show solidarity with His Majesty King Hamad.
Why did two international news agencies report only "hundreds" turned out to support the regime?
It was clear there were several thousand.
And how about Sky News yesterday wrongly telling the world the GDN was government-owned (we are not), claiming there are one million Bahrainis here (there are 568,399, according to the last census) and stating that women here wear burkas (last made fashionable by the Taliban in Afghanistan).
Maybe, their correspondent spent too long in Kabul?
The international media and their bloodhounds in Bahrain need to stop, take a deep breath and start to think about the bigger picture.
Bahrain is a pioneer in human rights and democracy in the Middle East, but there is still a long way to go.
Its politics is complicated and cannot be summed up with a 30-second piece to camera.
Taking over a busy intersection in the capital is no way to fast-track your demands and none of the countries from which these journalists originated would tolerate it.
Soon, the blood-hungry hacks now sniffing round our streets will leave - having added to their already impressive CV at our expense.
They will tell stories of their exploits in Bahrain around the dinner table, weaving exciting tales of adventure for their awe-gripped friends - and yet they can't even get the name of a roundabout right.
These well-travelled, well-paid, misinformed bunch will profit from the stories they tell - and the more outlandish they are, the bigger their pay cheques will become and the more awards they will win.
For they are not here to tell the true story, they are not here to cover what's really happening in Bahrain.
What they want is to reap as much profit for themselves as they can from the disruption and chaos that they themselves have helped fuel, salivating at the prospect of the next scoop of the hour.
By C Moore
