An observation about the Media
by Bryan Strawser
There were less than 15 US military deaths in Iraq during the entire month of July 2008.
Can you point to one major newspaper that covered this in the same fashion in which they covered our more violent months?
I can’t.
That’s because, “Soldiers Not Dying Quite as Fast” isn’t really much of a headline…especially when every major newspaper will have published, at some point in the last few months, an obituary for some local hero.
We just got one yesterday. Doesn’t feel like ‘less death’ to me. Just feels like death.
When two-thirds of a paper’s readers* think the war is wrong anyway, a story that puts a bright spin on ‘only’ 15 deaths in a month isn’t going to be particularly well-received.
Your favorite bleeding heart,
–k
*http://thinkprogress.org/2008/03/19/cheney-poll-iraq/
Well of course I know the real reason that this isn’t getting published.
But the real issue here, in my mind, is the lack of recognition by the media of the turnaround that is occurring in Iraq – and it’s being led by the same men and women whose deaths the same media was so willing to write about just a year or so ago when the violence was much worse.
And I’m glad you commented – just didn’t expect you to be first
B