I've observed over the past few days a lot of handwringing on Kos about the MSM's lack of attention to the leaked Pentagon video of the deaths of twelve people, including two Reuters reporters, in Iraq in 2007--especially the way most networks are avoiding showing the most disturbing sections of the footage. Predictably, Fox News filled the void a few minutes ago with an "analysis" that included highlighting blurry-looking pixels that they claimed clearly represented an RPG being carried by one of the men walking on the street. "Our soldiers on the ground sure knew what they saw," intoned the reporter, barely containing his contempt for those for whom slaughter of innocents still raises an eyebrow. The entire segment took all of the Pentagon's claims at face value and then, without a trace of irony, criticized the Wikileaks site for "editorializing" about the footage.
I know, I know: all of this is par for the course. But what was most disturbing to this viewer was that Fox did go on to show the actual moments of carnage and death in the video, including the massacre of what ostensibly appear to be good samaritans in the van who attempt to pick up the bodies. All the while, the show's host continued to comment that all of this was perfectly acceptable, that the ROE were being followed closely (hey, there were "no ambulance markings" on that van!) and that this whole thing had been blown out of proportion by Wikileaks. No mention of the two little kids being cut to pieces inside the van.
So this is where we are, in 2010 America: a national television network shows footage of what to any sentient observer are clearly unarmed civilians being cut down by jubilant aerial assassins, and narrates the entire time that this is only good, acceptable and right. Murder is justice. Peace is War. Up is Down.
In the country that debates whether torture is really all that bad, I guess this is to be expected.