Bush Needs to Stop Whining About the News in Iraq
I love to pick on the media. I enjoy picking on The Washington Post because the online reporters are especially adept at leaving themselves open to ridicule. Today, however, I will leave them alone. They're having to deal with too much crap coming from Bush, Cheney and conservative mouthpieces like Laura Ingraham. Evidently, the press isn't giving enough coverage to all the flower-strewn receptions given our troops by the Iraqis.
Ooops. You mean there aren't any? OK, then the press isn't giving enough coverage to the other good news coming out of Iraq. Let's see if we can turn the fact that they have electricity for about 8 hours out of each day into good news. ***Badda Bing*** There, now it reads: Iraqis not charged for the 16 hours of each day they do not have electricity. There's some good news.
Think about it. Does your local newspaper report all the successful trips that commuters make to work each day or do they report on the fiery crash that killed three as they tried to avoid the chickens that spilled out of a semi? How many every-day things are considered newsworthy? Not very many. Even if they are happening in Iraq. Why aren't these stories newsworthy? Maybe it isn't that they aren't worthy of coverage, but as Howard Kurtz mentions in the article linked to above, the reporters can't safely get around to report the day-to-day common successes.
It isn't that we don't want success in Iraq. As much as I think that the war has been totally mismanaged, I want to see successes. We broke it and we have to fix it. The problem I have with reporting them is that they aren't the rule. They are few and far between and as soon as we start celebrating a heartwarming story it seems that 50 more headless bodies are found or another funeral is bombed, or a wedding.
Howard Kurtz links to Paul Rieckoff at The Huffington Post.
Ooops. You mean there aren't any? OK, then the press isn't giving enough coverage to the other good news coming out of Iraq. Let's see if we can turn the fact that they have electricity for about 8 hours out of each day into good news. ***Badda Bing*** There, now it reads: Iraqis not charged for the 16 hours of each day they do not have electricity. There's some good news.
Think about it. Does your local newspaper report all the successful trips that commuters make to work each day or do they report on the fiery crash that killed three as they tried to avoid the chickens that spilled out of a semi? How many every-day things are considered newsworthy? Not very many. Even if they are happening in Iraq. Why aren't these stories newsworthy? Maybe it isn't that they aren't worthy of coverage, but as Howard Kurtz mentions in the article linked to above, the reporters can't safely get around to report the day-to-day common successes.
It isn't that we don't want success in Iraq. As much as I think that the war has been totally mismanaged, I want to see successes. We broke it and we have to fix it. The problem I have with reporting them is that they aren't the rule. They are few and far between and as soon as we start celebrating a heartwarming story it seems that 50 more headless bodies are found or another funeral is bombed, or a wedding.
Howard Kurtz links to Paul Rieckoff at The Huffington Post.
I think that just about sums it up.I believe that press coverage in Iraq is definitely too narrow. But too negative? I don't think so. If you are looking for good news stories in a war zone, you are looking for the wrong thing in the wrong place. It is like looking for virgins at the Playboy mansion--you might find a few, but they're certainly not the majority. If you want good news stories, go to Disneyland. Not Iraq
posted by B. Muse at
3/27/2006 03:13:00 PM
4 Comments:
Dancing around the "Internets" I have read some of the preposterous posts on some of the anti-progressive blogs, it still baffles me that there are Americans that still dazzled by the stooges we elect to public office.
If Dick Cheney wants to prove his ability to be such a great "war time" leader, let him get in the game. His deferments still enrage me and the poor military blindly follow the lead out of a sense of patriotism.
Don't get me wrong, patriotism is something I value as an American, yet they have debased the term by falsely using it to goad us into this time in our corporate life.
I worked in the military industry for a short time and most of our service personnel have a great sense of patriotism, yet they blindly follow orders as they have been trained.
Dissent is not un-patriotic! If so, there would never have been an America to begin with. The original revolutionaries were dissenters, they did not agree with the government in control either.
"I believe we must be strong militarily, but beyond a certain point military strength can become a national weakness." ~ Dwight D. Eisenhower
"Senator, when you took your oath of office, you placed your hand on the Bible and swore to uphold the Constitution. You did not place your hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible." ~ Professor Jamie Raskin replied to Senator Nancy Jacobs
Thank you for your comment. I get the sense that the right is coming unglued - from the leadership down to their bloggers.
It will be interesting to see just how much of the Constitution is intact when the Republicans are finished with it.
I love the Raskin quote. I heard it either over the weekend or last week some time. It's a classic. Thanks again for your comment.
Carolina should be blue in more ways than one. Heath Shuler is running for Congress in your area, somewhere this election season. He needs all the help he can get! I've spared with these lunatics for years and I still don't see where they find their "facts".
Here's wishing you a very Carolina Morning.
"I have found it easier to identify with the characters who verge upon hysteria, who were frightened of life, who were desperate to reach out to another person. But these seemingly fragile people are the strong people really." ~ Tennessee Williams, born Thomas Lanier Williams in Columbus, Mississippi (1911)
Or better yet, "The advantage of a bad memory is that one enjoys several times the same good things for the first time." ~ Friedrich Nietzsche
Keep up the blog, I try to come back everyday or so. http://naamansword.blogspot.com/
Godspeed, stay Blue, War Eagle!
Thanks! You've made my day/week/month. I also blog at BlueNC.com. It's open to guest bloggers. Please come by and pay a visit.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home