PA Newspaper Not Happy Enough for Right Wing

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Monday June 12, 2006 · 6:14 AM PDT

2006/06/12 · 06:14

This morning on his talk show on 1210 AM in Philadelphia, Michael Smerconish, our local right wing noise machine participant (although not as vitrolic and hatefilled as Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh, and not a liar like Bill O'Lielly), was lamenting his horror of the day.

And what was it?

The Haditha Massacre? No.

The Suicides at Gitmo? No.

The horrible play of the Philadelphia Phillies lately? No.

What has stoked Mr. Smerconish's ire is the fact that a local suburban newspaper on Friday ran with the following headline on its front page:

"Death Will Not End Insurgency"

The Death being referred to of course is Al-Zarqawi's death at the hands of a U.S. Airstrike on late Wednesday night. And indeed it is true, Al-Zarqawi's death will not end the insurgency. It will not end the violence. President Bush himself confirmed that in his remarks following Al-Zarqawi's death.

The Newspaper in question is the Intelligencer of Doylestown, Bucks County, Pennylvania. Unfortunately, I do not have a link to the actual story or a front page image showing the headline.

Regardless, the headline is true even as stated, and Mr. Smerconish's complaint is not about the truth of falsity of the headline's content, but about the lack of editorial or journalistic joy and cheer. Mr. Smerconish stated that he would prefer a gigantic headline stating "WE GOT HIM".

So let me get this straight. Reporters are only supposed to report the facts as announced by the White House.

Indeed, as Stephen Colbert said,

But, listen, let's review the rules. Here's how it works: the president makes decisions. He's the Decider. The press secretary announces those decisions, and you people of the press type those decisions down. Make, announce, type. Just put 'em through a spell check and go home.

If I am mistaken, that is exactly what this small little paper is doing. The headline "Death will not end insurgency" is a paraphrase of Mr. Bush's words on Thursday (and as such would appear in a Friday headline), warning the American people that indeed we had a long road ahead of us in this mistaken war in Iraq, and one death does not end a war.

Mr. Smerconish wants the paper to go against the rules and add some flourish and a cheer to the story. Mr. Smerconish wants the paper to make an editorial decision that benefits the President. Hmmmm. This is yet more evidence that conservatives do not oppose biased media. Rather, they only support media that favors and glorifies them, and they ridicule and oppose all others.

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