Lovely Reminder That Iraq Is Working Out
Admittedly this opinion piece is bias but I think it does a fine job of showing just how miserable news coverage of this war has been.
To be fair to the quit-Iraq-and-save-the-terrorists media, they have covered a few recent stories from Iraq:
* When a rogue US soldier used a Koran for target practice, journalists pulled out all the stops to turn it into “Abu Ghraib, The Sequel.”
Unforgivably, the Army handled the situation well. The “atrocity” didn’t get the traction the whorespondents hoped for.
* When a battered, bleeding al Qaeda managed to set off a few bombs targeting Sunni Arabs who’d turned against terror, that, too, received delighted media play.
* As long as Baghdad-based journalists could hope that the joint US-Iraqi move into Sadr City would end disastrously, we were treated to a brief flurry of headlines.
* A few weeks back, we heard about another Iraqi company - 100 or so men - who declined to fight. The story was just delicious, as far as the media were concerned.
Then tragedy struck: As in Basra the month before, absent-without-leave (and hiding in Iran) Muqtada al Sadr quit under pressure from Iraqi and US troops. The missile and mortar attacks on the Green Zone stopped. There’s peace in the streets.
He goes on to say:
The surge worked. Incontestably. Iraqis grew disenchanted with extremism. Our military performed magnificently. More and more Iraqis have stepped up to fight for their own country. The Iraqi economy’s taking off. And, for all its faults, the Iraqi legislature has accomplished far more than our own lobbyist-run Congress over the last 18 months.
When Iraq seemed destined to become a huge American embarrassment, our media couldn’t get enough of it. Now that Iraq looks like a success in the making, there’s a virtual news blackout.
Of course, the front pages need copy. So you can read all you want about the heroic efforts of the Chinese People’s Army in the wake of the earthquake.
Tells you all you really need to know about our media: American soldiers bad, Red Chinese troops good.
Emphasis is mine.
May 22nd, 2008 at 12:32 pm
As always, I agree on the bias but I disagree on the source. The US media reports almost exclusively bad news, across the board. Civil rights leaders often decry the media for portraying blacks only as criminals and wellfare frauds and negligent parents, because those are the only types of stories that the news typically bothers reporting on. Ignoring honrable, hard-working American soldiers is like ignoring successful, hard-work Black CEO’s: the news just doesn’t report on things that go right. I think that’s terrible and actually a much larger problem in our society than the coverage of the war specifically.
May 22nd, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Its hard to take your comments seriously. You are not honestly suggesting that minorities receive more negative attention that comparable white people?
May 22nd, 2008 at 5:07 pm
No, I was pointing out another group besides American soldiers that is always complaining about the bad press it gets. Iwas pointing out that the rhetoric you’re using applies equally to both groups. I think white criminals also get more coverage than nice, friendly, helpful white people. My point is that press coverage of everything is much more often negative than positive. We hear about earthquakes and floods, not nice sunny days and fertile growing seasons.
May 23rd, 2008 at 3:49 am
speaking of earthquakes, there are still aftershocks in chengdu where I am this summer. Also, the Chinese here are complaining about the west’s media bias against them. I might have to place myself in between you two on this one. I think the media does spend a lot of time on the bad news, hence the perceived bias by everyone. However, I think the plethora of liberal reporters makes them more likely to make their happy stories have a liberal slant. For example, I’ve seen more “what is it like to be so-and-so” stories from the popular press about terrorists than about businessmen.
May 24th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
How can a libertarian go to China and not have his head explode? You are a strong man boose.