Iceland's problematic US relations

I've written before about Helsingin Sanomat's interest in the frequency of top level meetings between Finland and the United States, but as criticizing the media makes me feel like a real blogger, I'll revisit the topic. Last weekend the paper topped itself (fi) when it published a list compiled by the US embassy detailing which European leaders have visited George W Bush in the US. The list conclusively proves that... well, see for yourself. Here are the European countries that have had the least meetings with President George W Bush:

1. Iceland 1
= Malta 1
= Yugoslavia 1
4. Albania 2
= Austria 2
= Belgium 2
= Estonia 2
= Finland 2
= Netherlands 2
= Portugal 2

(In addition a handful of countries, which the paper doesn't name, haven't gotten even that one meeting, but we'll forget about those.)

Having dug up incontrovertible proof that there's nothing out of the ordinary whatsoever about the number of Finno-American meetings, Helsingin Sanomat naturally picked the only possible headline for their story: "Finnish leadership has waited for a meeting with Bush the longest in Europe". If nothing else, you got to admire their persistence.

Update: Ye gawds.