Priorities and Coverage
I understand that the Israel/Lebanon conflict is a major story with huge potential implications (especially when the Israelis actually send ground forces across the border,) but let's get a little perspective. There was another major market attack in Iraq today killing at least 40 civilians, maybe as many 70+.
Where's my breathless Wolf Blitzer with his graphic map showing me a half dozen reporters spread around Iraq promising to cover "all sides of the conflict?" Where's my "BREAKING NEWS: Mid East Conflict" banner for Iraq with updates in every segment and constant interviews and analysis?
Take a look at the Reuters "Developments in Iraq" post yesterday. It looks like that every damn day, and it reflects only the incidents that make it to the Reuters newsdesk.
For all the criticism the Bush administration has heaped on the media over Iraq, I think the administration should just be thankful for the media they have. If Iraq had been covered the way this Israel/Lebanon conflict has been covered......
(Also, I want to point again to last night's post. The Sunnis are asking for the US to stay and protect them while, at the same time, conducting retaliatory attacks against unarmed civilians. How are US troops supposed to combat this? What is the mission?)
Where's my breathless Wolf Blitzer with his graphic map showing me a half dozen reporters spread around Iraq promising to cover "all sides of the conflict?" Where's my "BREAKING NEWS: Mid East Conflict" banner for Iraq with updates in every segment and constant interviews and analysis?
Take a look at the Reuters "Developments in Iraq" post yesterday. It looks like that every damn day, and it reflects only the incidents that make it to the Reuters newsdesk.
For all the criticism the Bush administration has heaped on the media over Iraq, I think the administration should just be thankful for the media they have. If Iraq had been covered the way this Israel/Lebanon conflict has been covered......
(Also, I want to point again to last night's post. The Sunnis are asking for the US to stay and protect them while, at the same time, conducting retaliatory attacks against unarmed civilians. How are US troops supposed to combat this? What is the mission?)
posted by mikevotes at
8:17 AM
10 Comments:
I find that Sunni request just a touch difficult to swallow.
It sounds to me like they are playing Bush like a well tuned instrument.
Feed him what he likes to hear and lead him down the wrong path.
Maybe I'm becoming more cynical, but I don't really trust the motives.
By
Cartledge, at 9:46 AM
Yeah, that's a great point about the administration really being up the creek if Iraq received the same amount of coverage as the Israeli/Hezbollah conflict. I saw on the Internets (maybe even here, now that I think about it) that Newsweek's Rod Norland said Iraq is MUCH WORSE than the coverage makes it seem. I guess the press continue to internalize all that Coulteresque criticism that they only report the bad news.
The scary thing is just how brazen the daytime attacks have gotten in the market attack, the mass kidnapping at the Olympic committee meeting, the attack in the Jihad neighborhood. And do you notice how the attackers often seem to be wearing government uniforms of some sort. No wonder some Sunni groups are now saying they don't want the U.S. and the Brits to leave. The genocide is only a drawdown away...
By
Reality-Based Educator, at 9:52 AM
I imagine, in some respects, the adminsitration is happy that Israel is bombing Lebanon. It takes the attention off Iraq for a while at least.
The fact that the Sunnis are begging for help while still committing atrocities means that yes, they are playing him like a well tuned instrument.
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Praguetwin, at 9:57 AM
Cartledge, yeah. Of note, this "turnaround" comes right after the Shia started asking for a US withdrawal timetable.
Also, trying to determine what "the Sunnis" is nearly impossible. It's not a unified structure with a spokesman.
Reality based, I did Nordland, but it was alot of other places too. And the daylight 50 man operations really do underscore the complete lack of security. And on the uniforms, the question to me is whether those in them are in the security forces, borrowing/stealing uniforms, deserters, "on the clock" or what. The fact that there's no answer to that also underlines the distance between the government and what's really happening in their country. Can they not get answers out of the interior ministry? Can the interior minister not get answers out of his officers? Do the officers not know?
Praguetwin, that thought about Israel being a distraction has crossed my mind several times.
Mike
(Also, how far off the radar is Afghanistan, where 30+ were killed yesterday that I didn't even mention it in my post?)
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mikevotes, at 10:21 AM
I didn't know 30+ were killed yesterday in Afghanistan. What were the cirumstances?
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Reality-Based Educator, at 10:50 AM
I'll just drop a link.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060716/wl_mideast_afp/afghanistanunrest_060716143050
Or just go to GoogleNews (http://news.google.com/) and search "Afghanistan 37"
Mike
By
mikevotes, at 10:57 AM
Thanks - I see this is all part of "Operation Mountain Thrust"!!! Who named that operation? Was "Operation Penetrating The Skirts Of The Taliban Movement" already taken?
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Reality-Based Educator, at 11:37 AM
The sunni's can't have their cake and eat it too..sorry but no.
The whole middle east is going to hell in record time and we can do nothing but sit in front of our tv's and watch. I am so frustrated.
By
Unknown, at 11:44 AM
Nice, Reality Based.
I know Dusty. I was thinking this morning how odd it is that the antiwar protests have almost moved in reverse on Iraq. Before the war and in the first year there were MAJOR protests, but slowly as it has gone on, they've gotten smaller and smaller as, interestingly, opposition to the war has grown. Bush's certainty has affected that front.
Mike
By
mikevotes, at 1:14 PM
Can Wolf Blitzer Survive The Latest Middle East Conflict?
On a much lighter note than the previous two posts, I saw Wolf Blitzer on CNN tonight. They finally talked him into getting out of the "Situation Room" and over to Israel. Of course he's in Jerusalem, as far away from rockets coming from either north or south of Israel as you can get right now.
He "interviewed" Benjamin Netanyahu tonight. He allowed Netanyahu to overpower him with a monologue that Wolf wasn't able to stop. He didn't know what to ask and he wasn't strong enough to stop Netanyahu to ask a tough question. He looked as if he was in a coma as Netanyahu went on and on giving the party line.
I can't see Wolfy in the Situation Room much longer. Not when CNN has a real journalist, John Roberts from CBS, under contract.
Wolf's delivery is so monotone and dull that the Situation Room is the only news program on TV where they have to have a snare drum playing in the background while he announces headlines.
Get it over with, CNN. Replace Wolf with Roberts and you can drop the drum as a way of trying to introduce drama into the headlines.
By
Marshall Darts, at 12:01 AM
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