General Criticized Media Bias and Paper Proved Him Right

The definition of ironic? A media outlet that omitted positive information about Iraq...from an article that criticized the media for doing just that.

Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch commander of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division, which is stationed in Iraq, spoke to reporters while on leave in the US. He denounced the media habit of omitting or downplaying positive news coming out of Iraq and then gave an example of the kind of news that is usually downplayed or omitted by the media (thnx NewsBusters reader).

In a perfect illustration of what Lynch meant, Editor & Publisher, a leading industry journal, let its metaphorical slip show and omitted Lynch's positive news about Iraq from the paper's September 21 article.

Without knowing it, Lynch described exactly what E&P would do in the article about him:

"If the American people are informed properly," Lynch told reporters after he arrived home on leave, "I believe they will be supportive of the mission. But they're not getting the right story. As a result, they're anti the war."

The media use a "filter" that downplays information about American successes: "All I'm seeing when I watch TV ... is the bad news and not the good news."

Luckily, Savannah Morning News was a little more responsible that day and reported what E&P would not (bold mine throughout):

Enemy attacks and U.S. casualties in the 3rd ID's West Virginia-sized battle zone south of Baghdad are "way down."

More than 2,000 enemy have been killed or captured there in the past six months.

The enemy has lost "sanctuaries" where it makes bombs, stores munitions, trains suicide bombers and plans attacks.

"But you never see that by watching Fox, CNN and NBC," he said.

Here's a tip to E&P. Don't try to conceal positive news from Iraq in a story about a soldier exposing that very gimmick. Doing it in the same article makes it really easy to catch.

Lynch couldn't have planned it better.

Lynn is a contributor for NewsBusters and can be reached at tvisgoodforyou2 AT yahoo DOT com