What is not reported is often far more important than what is 

The Media, Their Mouths and Their Minds

And you thought the media made it tough with their mouths open.  They make things far more difficult when they choose to keep them shut.

Consuming news as a conservative is always an unappetizing proposition, given the Leftist slant to nearly everything on the menu.  Being fed a steady diet of what collectively amounts to "You are wrong, and an ass (to boot) for what you think" leaves the average diner unsatisfied.

We are delivered so many servings of these media bias sins of commission we have been forced to make antacids the fifth food group. Here at the Media Research Center we find ourselves perpetually understaffed and overwhelmed in our efforts to chronicle it all.  (We were going to address this by conducting a hostile takeover of the New York Times, but we found them to be too hostile and with too little left to take over.)

As far as the media is concerned, in Iraq, if it succeeds it does not lead.

Since the Democrats retook control of Congress in November of last year, however, we have been placed on the press's version of a diet. 

The last thing the media wish to do is chronicle the fumblings and foibles of their Liberal cohorts now at the controls on Capitol Hill - and try as they may, the Congressional Republicans' serial errors are simply not enough to feed the ravenous 24-hour media beast.

So more and more we are fed less and less.  What they choose NOT to place on their bill of fare -- their sins of omission -- often leave us starving for the news staples of life.

The latest and best example of this is the goings on in Iraq.   

"In Iraq News Tonight, ..."

Four years of our failing to bring stability there gave the political activist media - the New York Times, Washington Post, ABC, NBC and CBS to name but a few - the chance to deliver us the bad news they wished.  What began as a steady stream of negative stories grew to be a torrent. 

And with the eagerness of a puppy in pursuit of its tail, the MSM was balefully predicting no hope at all for any success in the future.

The press has also been trying to spin the results of the 2006 election into a "mandate" for a precipitous U.S. troop withdrawal from Mesopotamia. 

They were so busy opining on what the election meant that more than 40 attempts by congressional Dems to force an end to the war seemed to escape their notice. Lost too in this shuffle was that a great many of the freshman Democrats -- who were a part of this supposed newly minted anti-war majority -- were in fact voting in opposition to their Party's leadership on these measures. 

A Freshman At Once in D.C. and His District

Or at least trying to appear that they were.  (These youngsters have yet to learn that the key to success in Hollywood or Washington is sincerity - once you learn to fake that, you've got it beat.)

When the David Petraeus Surge was announced in January, and throughout its early stages, the media were again the Choir of Our Discontent.  Singing along with Sen. Harry "The War is Lost" Reid and company remained easy so long as we continued to struggle in Iraq.

But as summer came and went, the facts on the ground improved to such a degree that even the media had to change their tune and report them. 

 

Whole Rest

But then the music stopped.  On September 10th, General Petraeus appeared before Congress to discuss this progress, and since then two things have diminished sharply -- the bloodshed and the press' reporting on and about it. 

As chronicled in our Media Reality Check, the Big Three Networks (NBC, ABC and CBS) all abruptly dropped the Iraqi ball, airing a combined 178 reports in September, 108 in October and just 68 in November. 

As far as the media is concerned, in Iraq, if it succeeds it does not lead.

Now This is News

Remember this the next time the press regales you with polling data showing Americans displeased with the progress in Iraq -- they have not been properly told of it by the people rushing to instead report the poll.

In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "Silver Blaze", Sherlock Holmes counseled us to be mindful of the dog that does not bark.  He deduced the story's horse thief to be someone a curiously quiet canine knew well, for it would have barked at anyone else. 

Free and Informed

It is advice worth heeding regarding the media.  If these hounds are silent, there is either Conservative good news afoot, or their Liberal friends are once again sinking in their own morass. 

The price of remaining free is eternal vigilance; the same can now be said of remaining informed.  In a Presidential year especially, it is every American's duty to do so.

—Seton Motley is Director of Communications for the Media Research Center and Contributing Editor for NewsBusters.org.