Ok, my first diary, so forgive me for any faux paxs. I hope the title isn't overly sensational.
As a habit, first thing in the morning I check the MSM at YahooNews to see how it's "playing in Peoria." Over the past couple of weeks, I've noticed something odd. "Off the Wire" stories offer the abitlity to recommend them at the bottom of the page by giving a story one to five stars. What I've noticed is that anything resembling bad news from Iraq (which is almost all of it) has had consistently low marks from 250 to 350 people by the time I look at it around 6:30 to 7:30 AM EST. By the end of the day most stories end up with an average rating of three of five stars, which seems to approximate the political divide in the U.S.
I don't know what impact rating a story has, but my guess is that there's a deliberate and coordinated attempt to hide what is happening to our troops by those who would support "Operation Whack-a-Mole" (Thanks for the phrase Bill from Maine. As former MI, that is one of the funniest and most succinct descriptions I've ever heard for an operation).
I think an ostrich is as good a symbol for the GOP as a yellow elephant.