HEADS UP! you will be seeing these complaints on reporting in Iraq

[underpants]

Seems our friends on the other side are going to start complaining that those terrible liberal media types are not reporting on how WELL EVERYTHING IS GOING IN IRAQ.

http://www.uexpress.com/johnleo/



MEDIA REPORTING FROM IRAQ IS ONE-SIDED AND FLAWED

If you rely on newspapers and TV networks for your news, chances are you have no idea that the controversial performance of Western reporters in Iraq is emerging as a big issue. The mainstream media have virtually ignored the stunning charges made by John Burns, the New York Times Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter. But those charges are all over the Internet and carried by Fox News and conservative commentators.

In his new book, "Embedded," Burns says the vast majority of correspondents in prewar Iraq played ball with Saddam and downplayed the viciousness of the regime. He said Iraq was "a grotesque charnel house" and a genuine threat to America, but to protect their access, the reporters did not tell the truth. Burns named no names (he should now) but he was particularly contemptuous of the BBC and CNN.

The campaign to get more balance into Iraq reporting has been driven by the Internet bloggers, particularly by Andrew Sullivan (AndrewSullivan.com) and law professor Glenn Reynolds of the University of Tennessee (Instapundit.com). Reynolds deplores 'the lazy Vietnam-templating, the "Of course America must be losing' spin, the implicit and sometimes explicit sneer ..."

[underpants]

1. .

.

[ithacan]

2. what's really striking to me is

that the media coverage here in the US is so positive!

Based on other information sources in other countries, we are not getting even half the story on how badly things are going.

Conservatives really don't want people to know the truth. They want Americans to live in the la-la fantasy world where everyone loves the US and showers US troops with flowers and kisses.

They cannot stand the fact that the policies of the US government towards the rest of the world are causing enormous hostility to the US. THey cannot stand the fact that Iraqis are not grateful for being bombed and occupied by the US...

[JHB]

3. They've already started.

n/t

[phillybri]

4. That's been going on for two weeks....

The argument doesn't hold much water when a General comes out and says 3-6 of our troops are dying each week....

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

5. Yep. 2 weeks.

I also believe that it is not sustainable. The press will return to their "bleeding" leads.

[KharmaTrain]

6. Inoculating The Base

Remember, all these wingnuts are stuck with this war tar-baby now and are going to justify it any way that they can. Their prime arguments have been totally debunked, so they turn on the messengers and distort both history and the message to distract any outside scrutiny from their actions.

It has been to spin away from the WMD issue by using the "Saddam's an Ogre" line (anyone who dares not agree that the invasion is justified on that alone is a terrorist), rather than the hysterical rhetoric this regime played with to manipulate their long-planned invasion.

So CNN and other media "played along" with Saddam to keep their bureaus operational in Baghdad. But they wouldn't dare shine the light in the other direction and discuss how this regime in our White House uses the media in a similar fashion...using access just like Baghdad Bob did. But this falls into the double standards that seem to grow larger and more jarring by these arrogant a-holes.