Notes on a Run Down Media

Two stories in two days. Which strikes you as far more important than the other? Which do you think made media headlines while the other passed fairly unnoticed?

Story One:

Saddam Hussein loyalists who violently opposed January elections have made an about-face as Thursday's polls near, urging fellow Sunni Arabs to vote and warning al Qaeda militants not to attack.

In a move unthinkable in the bloody run-up to the last election, guerrillas in the western insurgent heartland of Anbar province say they are even prepared to protect voting stations from fighters loyal to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of al Qaeda in Iraq.

Story Two:

Al-Qaida in Iraq and four other Islamic extremist groups denounced this week's parliamentary elections as a "satanic project" that violated God's law, but they stopped short of an explicit threat Monday to attack polling stations.

If you guessed Story Two made big headlines while Story One was largely ignored, you're merely ordinarily prescient.

For those who believe the idea of an American media cheering for American defeat is hyperbole, I need only point to the above to prove otherwise.

Comments

[Jack Malebranche]

If it bleeds, it leads.

I mean, c'mon...they called the Western world and half the Iraqi people 'Satanists.' That's hot.

The other stuff is just information...that's not what the news is for...

It seems to me that Americans are bored with Iraq and they need something new and exciting to make them care again. I mean, unless you're a political junkie, seeing "blahblahblah died/got bombed/was taken hostage/beheaded in Iraq today" has long since become anything but tiresome. It was all fun during "Shock and Awe," but now it is like a 3 hour movie that they really didn't want to see very badly. They just want to leave the theater.

I'm not saying it's smart or right. Just saying it's human nature, and what is, is. Hate is more motivating than 'vague concern.' America's enemies have the nonstop adrenaline rush of seething hatred and nothing else to live for. Americans only ever mustered 'vague concern,' bolstered by a feeling of national superiority, which erodes the longer the war drags on. 9-11 is becoming a distant memory and a political cliche.

The media is just another industry, with consumers to please.

[Jamie]

That's funny. I heard about Story One on one of the Sunday talk shows, but not about Story Two at all. In fact, they pressed the angle that this is the first time there has been opposition between the two groups (Saddam Loyalists and Al-Queda).

I guess the bias depends upon where you get your news? You sure as hell won't get any real information from watching Faux News.

[Robbie]

I generally rely on newspapers and online news outlets for my news. Washington Post, AP, Reuters, Yahoo, NYT, BBC, AOL, etc. I actually don't have a Fox news feed in my reader, oddly enough. The Satanic comments were the top story all over the place yesterday. The other story was buried.

You do bring up a strange assumption. Tell someone you're somewhat conservative or libertarian, and they just assume you're watching Fox all the time. I generally avoid cable news if I can help it. Too much commentary, speculation, and general verbal masturbation to really be of interest. I don't have the patience for it.

I last watched Fox last night, but before that I probably haven't seen anything from them in two or three weeks. And last night was only because I was watching CNN's execution coverage and after the sixth "Tookie is awesome!" advocate in a row, I had to turn them off in disgust. Not that Fox was any better. Just a titch too excited about the whole affair.

Unless there's a car chase or similar blow-by-blow breaking story occurring, I give cable news a wide berth.

[Aatom]

I'm more of a CNBC man.

[Dan]

Well considering how compliant the press was when this war started, it was only inevitable they'd start to recenter eventually.

Everyone's biased. Robbie's right to get info from as many sources as possible. It hurts me to watch the relentless rightwing blowjobs over on FoxNews, but it's equally hard to watch the leftwing blowjobs over on BBC News. Read 'em all and sort it out on your own, I think.

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