Well, looky there: it’s the press whining and bitching: “Waaah! Why did it take a whole day to tell us about the Cheney shooting incident?”. And now that is the hot, hot topic: CHENEY SHOT SOMEBODY!! Oh, the horror. Oh, should he resign over this? Etc., etc.
Last Wednesday (or Thursday; I’ll have to double-check this), there was a press conference in Iraq. At that conference, it was announced that Iraqi forces have been fully responsible for more than 40% of the missions being run, and have participated in another 35% or so. Now, that was big news. But it wasn’t reported mainstream until today, when USA Today ran an article about it. And I’m curious as to why the mainstream media would choose NOT to report on something positive coming out of Iraq, but are having a feeding frenzy over an accident involving the Vice-President.
Goodness. Could this possibly be (ohmygodlookouthesgonnasaytheBword) bias (ohmygodhesaidithesaidit) on the part of the media? Are they so interested in reporting *anything whatsoever * that makes the current administration look bad that they would deliberately choose to not report the details of that press conference? I gotta say: when the press conference indicates that we are nearly to the halfway point of successful completion of our mission instead of being “bogged down in a quagmire”, it sure looks like it.
Ah, like a warm towel in winter, it’s another special edition of Clothahump vs. The Big Bad Media Machine.
Is this stuff really so hard to understand? Maybe once you age a little and your testicles descend this all won’t be so vexing. The national media gets around to reporting the wonderful successes in Iraq the same way the local media gets around to mentioning a the local library has a new section for teen readers. They do the juicy stuff first. Murders? Rapes? Robberies? Front of the line! New water main providing East Durndle with clean water? We’ll get to it whenever.
Cheney shooting someone in the face? Call me crazy, but I think a few more people are going to tune in to hear about that over what’s going on in Iraq (good or bad news).
Thanks for the OP Clothy, see you in four or five days!
Iraq is, sadly enough, OLD NEWS. People aren’t paying much attention to things that happen there unless it’s bad news. Good things happening is nice and all but it won’t move papers or ratings points.
The VP spraying some poor bastard with pellets, however, is an unexpected occurange and, therefore, top news.
What next? Should we report that the sun came up? What about ‘Oxygen! Good for what ails you!’
Slacker nails it in one! CNN actually spoke about how there was other more important items to cover in yesterday’s Press Briefing, but Scott McClellan had to devote his time handling the press pit bulls defending a position (delay of public statement) he allegedly didn’t agree with. (I know…as Press Secretary, that is his job, no need to bring that up).
News is about entertainment - it’s not even disguised anymore. They are going to run with the most entertaining, not the most important, stories. Cheney was more entertaining.
I think the more important thing here is the fact that we are responsible for only 60% of the patrols in Iraq nearly 3 years after we invaded constitutes good news.
Wouldn’t the phrase ‘yet another’ require you to have actually proven this media bias rather than posting shit and run OP’s with zero fact checking while repeatedly getting you head handed to you?
What would happen if put an X over your ability to post OP’s?
As John Nichols pointed out yesterday, the really appalling “disparity” in media behavior concerning the Vice-President these days is that they’re all hot and bothered over missing the scoop on an accidental hunting mishap, while simultaneously being apathetic and passive over recent disclosures that Cheney authorized the leaking of classified information about a CIA agent.
On the contrary, they’re indefensibly sluggish and timid about investigating and reporting on the worst of what the current administration is doing.
We are? Nearly half of the insurgency is gone? Nearly half of the Iraqi security forces are trained and prepared? Nearly half of the Iraqi infrastructure has been rebuilt? Nearly half of the projected increase in Iraqi oil output has been achieved? Nearly half of the Shi’ite militias are disbanded? Nearly half of the attacks on coalition troops and Iraqi civilians have stopped? Nearly half of the foreign jihadists have been removed? Nearly half of the Islamist curtailments of women’s liberty have been rolled back? Well now, that is news! (Or would be, if it happened to be true.)
Someone has to counter the vast conservative conspiracy.
It’s hard enough as it is, fighting the War on Islam, while still fighting the War on Christianity. Judaism, as we all know, has always been under siege, and is also sapping lots of resources. Without the liberal and conservative conspiracies offsetting each other, we’d really be shorthanded.
I love that quote, and O’Rourke and I are political opposites, ironically.