Good News Is No News, Post Writer Insists
 

Good News Is No News, Post Writer Insists
Journalists tend not to respond well to criticism, and the Washington Post's Dana Milbank provided a good example yesterday on CNN's "Reliable Sources," hosted by fellow Postman Howard Kurtz:

Kurtz: There is criticism that the media, for example, are playing up bad news in Iraq, and therefore making things look worse, and therefore damaging the president, some would say intentionally.

Milbank: This is one of the most dangerous things I think happens in our whole culture. . . . The implication is that the press, by writing about bad news, things that are happening bad to the United States occupation in Iraq, are giving aid and comfort to the enemy. And this, I think, is against the long tradition that has governed the press in America, and that is that we--it is our responsibility to point out when things are wrong. It's not our job to be cheerleaders.

So criticizing the media is dangerous and the job of the media is to report bad news? Isn't the job of the media to report news, good and bad? The criticism that the media have dwelled too much on bad news is hard to refute.

Example: This week's Time magazine cover shows President Bush in his flight suit after that glorious May 1 landing on the USS Abraham Lincoln. Later that day (after changing into a business suit), the president delivered a speech declaring the end to "major combat operations" in Iraq. Sailors had strung a banner from the ship's bridge reading "Mission accomplished." The Time cover blurb reads: "Mission Not Accomplished: How Bush Misjudged the Task of Fixing Iraq."

"The mission wasn't accomplished then, and it still is not," Time carps. "The reconstruction of Iraq has proved far more difficult than any official assumed it would be." But here's what Bush said on the Lincoln:

We have difficult work to do in Iraq. We're bringing order to parts of that country that remain dangerous. We're pursuing and finding leaders of the old regime, who will be held to account for their crimes. We've begun the search for hidden chemical and biological weapons and already know of hundreds of sites that will be investigated. We're helping to rebuild Iraq, where the dictator built palaces for himself, instead of hospitals and schools. And we will stand with the new leaders of Iraq as they establish a government of, by, and for the Iraqi people,

The transition from dictatorship to democracy will take time, but it is worth every effort. Our coalition will stay until our work is done. Then we will leave, and we will leave behind a free Iraq.

Reuters, meanwhile, carries what should be an upbeat story about American soldiers teaching Iraqi orphans to play football, but can't resist throwing in this anti-American non sequitur: "None of the boys asked to play was orphaned as a result of the U.S.-led invasion in which an unknown number of Iraqi civilians were killed. U.S. efforts to restore order since the end of the war have floundered and postwar guerrilla attacks in which 80 U.S. soldiers have died have left troops wary of contact with locals."

Sorry to be so critical, Milbank, but we like to live dangerously.

Milbank needs to understand that though he is not expected to be a cheerleader he, and all his kind, ARE expected to deliver ALL the news they can possibly fit it to time and space restrictions.

The Fourth Estate thinks it is the Fourth Branch of american government, most of the time. They do disservice to us by a) constantly repeating themselves on stories of marginal interest while avoiding more important ones, b) acting as if they play a role in making policy.

A lot of times it just seems like they've gotten to big for their britches...

Trying the impossible...
 

...in Iraq. And, just because politically-correct warfare seemed to have worked so well in Iraq,...pretty-much everyone seems to believe that a politically-correct occupation and rebuilding of Iraq (even while under fire) is A-OK. NONSENSE!!!

Only just yesterday on TV was shown more of the absurd. Iraqi Civilians having previously given food and water to ambushers and killers of American Troops were openly protesting and claiming: "We're not for Sadam". "We're just anti-Americans". Absolutely amazing! It's likely that even some escaped killers were amongst them, to boot.

Regardless, just imagine defeated German Civilians in a time before political-correctness and/or absurd over-sensitivity towards people (even enemies) existed, acting so. Believe "They" would all have been penned-up, sorted-out, and later tried as terrorists and/or enemy collaborators.

Besides, MY/OUR Constitution doesn't give the right to protest for every living and breathing creature on earth (fanatical enemies inclusive). DOES "IT"???

Neil :d: :d: :d:

What I want most to see reports on, even if they MUST throw in a few protest shots now and then, is images and interviews about the schools, and sewerage, and water, and communications, and medical care and all the rest of it that our folks arew rebuilding over there... I need this and I believe the american people need to see this too. We really long to see it, and this is one place where Iraq and VN are similar in the way they are being portrayed... all the good stuff is kept from us, and I really am just angry as hell about that... with all the money and staffing the networks have, for them to dwell on the same stuff month after month is practically criminal.

I can't even truly write out the degree of frustration I have with, especially, TV "news" people and networks... and I know they aren't gonna do a damn thing to change either.