Why Chicago needs a liberal newspaper...

...or at least one that isn't frothing-at-the-mouth right-wing.

Both the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times feature odious editorials today accusing the Spanish people of appeasing terrorists by voting out the ruling conservative Popular Party and voting in the Socialists.

From the Trib (registration required):

By all appearances, the upset of Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar's Popular Party in Spain hinged on one stunning event: the terrorist bombing of four commuter trains in Madrid that killed 201 people and injured more than 1,500. It's difficult to fault voters who reacted emotionally in the aftermath of the bloody bombings. But it's also difficult to ignore the terrible message that sends: Spain has reacted to terrorism by acceding to the terrorists' wishes.

The Sun-Times is even worse:

The terrorists won. Not Thursday, when their bombs tore apart commuter trains in Madrid and killed 201 people. Rather, they won Sunday, when Spain held its national elections, and threw out the governing "Popular Party'' which supported U.S. efforts in Iraq and was expected to win easily, and in its place elected the Socialist Party, which has promised to pull Spain out of Iraq this summer.

Exactly as the terrorists want.

These rabid editorials make one consider moving to Spain.  Here's my response to the Sun-Times, for what it's worth (my letter to the Tribune was pretty much the same):

To the editors:

The Sun-Times editorial board falsely states that "the terrorists won" because Spanish voters elected a socialist government in the wake of last week's horrific bomb attacks. What an outrageous and offensive statement. If the editorial board were to stop viewing the world through Bush-colored glasses, it would recognize that what the Spanish people actually did was punish a conservative government which--like its American counterpart--shifted its attention from combating terrorism to participating in an unnecessary war and occupation in Iraq. The editorial board conflates terrorism with the war in Iraq, when in fact the two have nothing to do with each other--at least they didn't until the U.S. invaded and occupied Iraq, allowing Islamic terrorists to gain a foothold amid the post-war chaos.

Spaniards were also furious that the government attempted to manipulate the media and mislead the public into believing that Basque extremists were responsible for the bombings, even as evidence mounted that Islamic terrorists were to blame. Perhaps the outgoing Spanish government took lessons in deception and obfuscation from the Bush administration, which has never let facts get in the way of its extreme policies. The Spanish people did the right thing by tossing out their irresponsible, deceitful right-wing government, and the American people should follow their example by dumping the Bush administration in November. Maybe then we can get serious about terrorism, for a change.

Needless to say, I'm not expecting to see these letters in print.  What I wouldn't give for an American media landscape that resembled Europe's, where most political perspectives have at least one outlet of their own and the state-funded national TV networks really are impartial (to the extent that's truly possible, anyway).