Upon the recent discovery that 500 chemical weapons have been found in Iraq, Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA), with Rep. Pete Hoesktra (R-MI) at his side, announced yesterday (Wed. June 21, 2006) some stunning news: "We have found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, chemical weapons." If you thought such an eye-opening story would merit at least a syllable or two in today's Los Angeles Times (Thu. June 22, 2006), think again. There is not a single word on the story in today's paper. Of course, the Times found plenty of room above the fold on their front page to play up the charges of murder against U.S. troops: "8 U.S. Troops Charged in Iraqi's Death."
Summary: 1374 words and a photo for charges of murder against our troops ... 0 words and 0 photos for coalition troops finding lost WMD in Iraq. Good grief.
Regular readers of NewsBusters should find that the Times' ignoring of this story should come as little surprise. NewsBusters has documented several cases of the Times either downplaying good news for the Bush administration or ignoring news that may be unflattering to Democrats (here and here are just a couple of many examples).
In addition, the 8am PDT (11am EDT) broadcast of the top-of-the-hour news on ABC News Radio also ignored the discovery of the WMD. But just like the Times, they easily found time to report on the murder charges against our troops.
(Before logging on to write this, I checked over with the fabulous LA Times watchdog, Patterico. In addition to noticing the same thing, he noted that the New York Times also ignored the story.)
