An unbylined Associated Press report yesterday, at least as carried at MSNBC, acknowledges improvement, and then explains why it's not going to get much future coverage from the wire service as long as things stay that way:
BAGHDAD - Signs are emerging that Iraq has reached a turning point. Violence is down, armed extremists are in disarray, government confidence is rising and sectarian communities are gearing up for a battle at the polls rather than slaughter in the streets.
Those positive signs are attracting little attention in the United States, where the war-weary public is focused on the American presidential contest and skeptical of talk of success after so many years of unfounded optimism by the war's supporters.
But is the public tuning out because they are "war-weary," or are they tuning out because are so tired of hearing and seeing over-the-top negative stories? Significant levels of positive news have been lacking from Iraq for so many years that the likely expectation is that any news will be bad news.
Jim Taranto's more succinct take at the Wall Street Journal's Best of the Web is this:
Don't expect to read any more about it (good Iraq news) from the AP. After all, you're just not interested.
Once again, AP decides what the relatively disengaged will see based on its own set of priorities, which apparently do not include a responsibility to inform the public in a consistent matter.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
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Why am I not
June 17, 2008 - 23:42 ET by Free StinkerWhy am I not surprised?
"Don't forget to vote this fall. Not for McCain, not ever, but there might be a Conservative Rep or Senator that Needs Your Vote" --Free Stinker
FS... Same reason I'm
June 17, 2008 - 23:47 ET by bigtimerFS...
Same reason I'm not.
I am so past disgusted, the words you want to say are useless...plus prohibitive.
"Never murder your opponent when he is committing suicide." ~ W. Wilson
I'm past disgusted too BT- they'll save the good news for Obama
June 17, 2008 - 23:50 ET by Dee Bunkwhen he gets in. Then he'll have worked miracles overnight. They are so pathetic.
"Those positive signs are
June 17, 2008 - 23:51 ET by RESTLESS 1"Those positive signs are attracting little attention in the United
States, where the war-weary public is focused on the American
presidential contest and skeptical of talk of success after so many
years of unfounded optimism by the war's supporters."
Am I losing it, or did they contradict themselves, show their bias, and prove themselves fools in 50 words or less?
"This
liberal would be all about socialize -- uh, uh, would be about
basically taking over and the government running all of your companies."-Maxine Waters 2008
MEDIA REPORTING UP TO THE
June 18, 2008 - 12:32 ET by TruthMongerMEDIA REPORTING UP TO THE WAR:
We need more time, we need more diplomacy, it's only been about a decade begging Hussein to be nice and he's only committed almost 20 UN security council violations!
(Hussein gets 14 months to re-instate the UN inspectors to avoid invasion - and fails to comply, intel from several countries going back to the 90's indicates WMD development, terrorist assistance - major Democrat leaders officially concur on record and congress authorizes the invasion, 30 other countries join the coalition)
MEDIA REPORTING DURING THE WAR:
we're doing this alone, unilaterally, this is an illegal war for oil, it's personal revenge for Bush, our troops torture completely innocent terrorists, GITMO is a war crime, warning to our enemies: we have secret CIA facilities in Europe - here's where they are(address, phone, etc), we haven't found any WMD's yet - Bush LIED ABOUT WMD - IT'S JUST A WAR FOR OIL AND HALIBURTON - CHENEY'S ON THE BOARD, BUSH IS HITLER, BUSH IS A CRIMINAL, BUSH IS A COWBOY, HE'S AN IDIOT, WORST PRESIDENT EVER, IRAQ HAS BEEN THE WORST MISTAKE THE US HAS EVER MADE, WILL EVER MAKE, WORSE THAN VIET NAM, OUR STERLING REPUTATION OF WORLD LOVE AND ADORATION HAS BEEN RUINED BY BUSH AND HIS OIL WAR...
(Carter is granted the Nobel Peace Prize for bashing Bush, Oscars and Grammy's are awarded to traitors, Dems previously favoring the liberation of Iraq now denounce it as a debacle, USS Lincoln completes it's mission and flies a celebratory banner stating so on deck, Bush congrats crew in-person, banner is the backdrop - media siezes on the banner to ridicule Bush)
MEDIA REPORTING AFTER WE WON:
Haditha Marines murded innocent people, and we still haven't won yet, Hussein may be dead but until everyone in the country is rich and happy it's still a lost cause, and we knew all along there was no WMD, almost 3000 troops wasted their lives, we've killed millions of Iraqi's for no reason, we have created terrorism...
(WMD's and other related technology is recovered, Hussein was captured and tried by the Iraqi government, a democracy has been installed, Haditha Marrines are aquitted, Hussein's brutal police-state dictatorship has been toppled, terrorists have lost a major ally in the mid-east, the US has gained a major ally in the mid-east - doing more for world peace than Gore's completely erroneous documentary - never-the-less he's granted the Nobel Peace Prize)
MEDIA REPORTING NOW:
essentially nothing - but Lettermen at least has the stones to lament the "Iraq disaster"
(The coalition mission has been a resounding success, US casualties have been stunningly low - not even 4000 - the same number of babies that liberals abort every day in this country alone, not even half the number of people killed in US car accidents every year, Al-Queda has been smashed, bin Laden will spend the rest of his very short life in a cave until he is inevitably dragged out to justice, Iraq is a flourishing Democracy, the Iraqi people have liberty and freedom, a major new US ally in the region has arisen, Iran and terrorists worldwide have become further isolated and marginalized, pro-Hussein leaders around the world have been booted from office by the people and replaced with coalition supporters, worldwide commerce and peace continues to flourish, 3rd worlds are emerging into the light of growth and prosperity - Nobel Peace Prize for Bush? Hardly enough - we must rename it the Bush Peace Prize - first Laureate: The US Military and heroic coalition, then Dick Cheney, then Rumsfeld, then Rice, Wolfowitz, Rush Limbaugh, on and on and on...
THE MEDIA GOES DOWN IN HISTORY:
as treasonous, traitorous, pondscum bastards, forever etched in history as Hussein lovers and champions of terrorists to the end...
I recently heard a comment
June 17, 2008 - 23:52 ET by Clear thinkerI recently heard a comment that makes you wonder...
The comment went something like this... "Our country as of late seems to have become disconnected and uninterested with the war in Iraq".
With a media like this, is it any wonder? Whatever happened to old fashioned reporting like "We Are Winning"?
"Abstain from McCain"
Victory has never been in
June 18, 2008 - 00:03 ET by bigtimerVictory has never been in the vocabulary.
Forbidden.
"Never murder your opponent when he is committing suicide." ~ W. Wilson
Maybe it's time that the
June 18, 2008 - 00:08 ET by Clear thinkerMaybe it's time that the old "V" for victory sign made a come back. We will have to first let people know that "No, it's not a peace sign".
"Abstain from McCain"
CT - that will be
June 18, 2008 - 10:43 ET by Cape Conservativea major challenge in itself!
We will have to first let people know that "No, it's not a peace sign".
Tired of the AP
June 18, 2008 - 00:18 ET by wdhorningThe AP has some nerve. Of course if a Democrat were President, the AP would have human-interest stories galore, making the President look like some savior.
The AP seems interested in only one thing, IHMO, and that is, partisan reporting, period.
Unfounded?
June 18, 2008 - 00:30 ET by BondPlainBond... "after so many years of unfounded optimism by the war's supporters" ...
Unfounded optimism? Unfounded?
I followed the progress in Iraq all the time; the schools built, the hospitals built, the civic centers going up in the major cities, the bus stops dotting the ever safer streets, the Americans and coalition working in stronger and stronger cooperation with the Iraqis at all levels as the months have gone by; all of it.
Just because the liberal side of the aisle never saw the progress, or, refused to admit it, that's their way of viewing the world, through a negative lens, and foisting their view onto the public as mine, too, is not very much appreciated.
Yeah thats what I thought
June 18, 2008 - 09:09 ET by Right2thePointYeah thats what I thought too.
There was plenty of optimism in the milblog community and not just cheerleading but knowing our abilities and what we could do.
They starved for air anything that didn't fit the framing of a lost cause and wonder why that is all their readers perceived.
Between the milblogs , MNF Iraq for the news conferences and the Pentagon Channel plus many other sources we had to use to get the real deal story that their 'journalists' somehow couldn't find with a flashlight.
Pentagon Channel
June 18, 2008 - 09:21 ET by expatriotRight,
Is the pentagon channel available in cable packages in the states? We get it on AFN in Germany and there are some great stories that they produce. It would be great if they could get those stories out to the general population.
Un-American MSM?
June 18, 2008 - 01:47 ET by chazskiThere simply is no question that, if we had had today's media during WWII, we would have lost and this would be written in Germpanese. Imagine the MSM hysteria when the Battle of the Bulge began, reporting over and over and over the statement from an earlier version of Harry Reid that the war is lost, then their utter silence when we turned the Germans back. Imagine an earlier version of Ted Koppel reading the names of all the men killed on D-Day, not to honor the heroism and sacrifice of the fallen, but to turn public opinion against the war. Imagine their incessant demand for an "end date" beginning 24 hours after the declaration of war, or their mindless accusations that Roosevelt entered the war without an "exit strategy", or that, since Hitler never attacked us and is not an "imminent threat", fighting him is taking our "eye off the ball" and fighting the wrong war, or their interminable demands for a date when our troops will be "redeployed" out of Europe. And imagine if nowhere in the mountainous volume of their negative reporting can a reader encounter the words "win" or "victory". Would it be any wonder if public opinion turned against the war? It would be a wonder if it didn’t. And of course, that imbedded reporter, Ernie Pyle, would be ridiculed as a jingoistic toady for the administration and would be dismissed as irrelevant.
But what if it was discovered that the MSM was owned and populated 75% or more by Republicans and that their real objection to the war was that it was under the leadership of a Democrat president? Moreover, what if it became clear that the Republican MSM, out of shear, blind partisanship, had so undermined public support for the war that the US had been defeated by the AXIS powers? Would it be appropriate then to call the MSM "un-American"? After all, what do you expect from those damn Republicans?
Good post. If you ever want
June 18, 2008 - 01:56 ET by Carl KolchakGood post. If you ever want to see how un-American the MSM is, then you need to look at how they reported after the Tet Offensive during the Vietnam War. The Tet Offensive is considered the turning point in the Vietnam War, and the VC were virtually eliminated as a result. How could a devastating defeat for the VC get turned into a victory? From the reporting of the MSM especially Cronkite. Ho Chi Minh and the Communist leaders thought the S. Vietnamese civilians would rise up and fight against their government and join the Communists. This didn't happen, in fact many S. Vietnamese civilians were massacred at Hue. The MSM reported the Tet Offensive as if the S. Vietnamese, Australians, Americans, etc. were stuck in a quagmire. You mentioned the Battle of the Bulge above. In my opinion the reporting by the MSM after the Tet Offensive, would be the equivalent of saying the Germans won the Battle of the Bulge.
Fish, where are you?
June 18, 2008 - 01:49 ET by expatriotYo Jethro,
I rest my case you blind monkey. No more remote for you.
Now that the Iraq war isn't
June 18, 2008 - 07:30 ET by KillgraveNow that the Iraq war isn't going as badly for the Americans as they want, they will now focus on "more important" issues for the election.
Namely, how we can tax and regulate our way out of a sluggish economy (or, as they say it, a "full blown recession").
Besides, it is a
June 18, 2008 - 10:50 ET by Cape ConservativeGIVEN that all news coming from the evening msm MUST be NEGATIVE! No positive whatsoever - NEVER! (unless it is mentions the Obamessiah!)
Bad economy - Bad Bush - Bad oil prices - Bad Bush - Bad food prices - Bad Bush - Bad floods - Bad!!! Bad!!! Bad!!! - and they wonder why the networks are losing viewers????????????????????
So when the country was for
June 18, 2008 - 07:29 ET by Ryan Mc.So when the country was for the war it was the media's "responsibility" to report on the "chaos" to educate us on the war. When things are going well and we still think its going bad (not so ironically because of the constant media negative reporting) we shouldn't educate anymore because what's the use? What was the use when they were fighting public opinion in 2003-2007? Where is the proof the public doesn't want to hear good news from Iraq?
I can't see how bias can be better demonstrated. The "public is just not interested" was never a factor when they reported death toll numbers. It's so blatently a poor excuse.
Translation time, everyone
June 18, 2008 - 07:42 ET by richflanjTranslation time, everyone (since the media doesn't speak our language anymore - if they ever did.
Language: "AP-eese" and "MSM-eese"
Word: "war-weary"
Translation to "Fly-over country English": "We can't use the information to promote our anti-american agenda, so it doesn't exist."
Very Good,
June 18, 2008 - 10:51 ET by Cape Conservativerichflanj!!!
AP ignores Good News in Iraq
June 18, 2008 - 08:54 ET by TigerDoes this mean the the AP stringers in Iraq have been captured or killed with their insurgents?
The MSM
June 18, 2008 - 09:22 ET by WR JonasThey have offered their view on Us citizens and I think it is time we offered our view on them .
They are master wordsmiths with the ability and means to communicate in the transmission of truth . But they choose to ignore things that are truth and spin lies. Americans are tired or war weary? That is is a patheticly foolish generalization.
They are professional liars not journalists.
Not coincidentally, Obama
June 18, 2008 - 09:41 ET by krendlerNot coincidentally, Obama and the Dems have stopped talking about the current state of affairs in Iraq as well. Guess they also sense the "war weariness" of the American public.
This is "the gem" though:
Americans are "skeptical of talk of success after so many years of unfounded optimism by the war's supporters. "
1) If things have improved dramatically, why was the optimism expressed "unfounded"?
2) Given the tremendous strides that have been made over the past 18 months, shouldn't Americans now be "skeptical of talk of failure by the war's opponents"? e.g., Dem candidate Obama.
OT: Nauseating segment on CNN this morning introducing us to the new and improved Michelle Obama 2.0. It also decried the Republican attack machine, complete with remarks from Barry demanding that John McCain call off the attack dogs going after his wife.
My guess is the
June 18, 2008 - 10:58 ET by Cape Conservative"real Michelle" will not be able to remain in the "sit/stay" position very long! And how dare BHO say she is off limits when she is out there constantly offering her unasked-for opinions! Michelle needs to understand one thing, "This is NOT about her!"