The worst foreign policy blunder in the history of this nation received a great deal of media attention yesterday and today, as well it should. Much to the chagrin of war hawks everywhere, nearly every news outlet spent time revisiting the last 5 years.
Every reputable source of news spent copious amounts of time detailing the "then and now" of a decision that has taken the lives of 3,992 American soldiers, has left wounded another 29,395 American soldiers and has taken out of circulation over 140,000 military personnel that could be tracking down the undisputed mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, Osama bin Laden. . .who in an audio tape released today, reminded us that he is still at large and plotting who knows what manner of malfeasance against a country whose defenses are bogged down in the quagmire that is Iraq.
Not every news outlet, however, falls under the heading "reputable".
Take for example, Rush Limbaugh. . .not ONE reference to the 5 year anniversary on his website. And the topic du'jour for the Rush on the day of the 5 year anniversary? Well, Rush spent the majority of his show disparaging Senator Obama and the supposed "white guilt" incurred by Senator Obama's speech on race Tuesday. In addition, it would appear that his fixation with Jeremiah Wright is now official. . .he's awarded with a daily segment on his show.
What about Bill O'Reilly? He's hung up on his "culture quiz". No time for the war, apparently.
How about Fox "News" themselves? To their credit, they mentioned it a few times during the earlier part of the day, but as soon as Bush's speech about the event was over (you know the one he gives every year telling us about how much progress we've made), it was pushed to the back burner in favor of other, more important "news" items. What captivated Fox instead? Let's see. . .John McCain's visit to Israel, a man in Australia who constructed a robot that shot him in his driveway, Barry Bonds possible new indictment, and Ashley Alexandra Dupre's possible underage appearance for "Girls Gone Wild".
How about their website? First mention of the 5 year anniversary of the war turned occupation in Iraq was a blurb on the right hand side of the web page, 3/4 of the way down, about a 4-part series by Rick Leventhal about five young Marines he met when the war began. That's it.
Conversely, websites and television coverage for CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS and CSPAN ALL had it as their lead story and ALL had it front and center on their websites. Very telling.
Also telling is that yesterday, the Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ) put out its annual report on the "State of the News Media."
According to PEJ, Fox News led the cable networks in the most amount of celebrity coverage and the least amount of Iraq war coverage. PEJ notes:
MSNBC, at least in terms of time spent, was indeed the place for politics in 2007 — by nearly double over its rivals in the percentage of time studied (28% vs. 12% on CNN and 15% on Fox News). Fox, in turn, spent less time on the war in Iraq than the others (10% vs. 18% on MSNBC and 16% on CNN). And it was more oriented to crime, celebrity and the media than its rivals (28% vs. 19% on MSNBC and 16% on CNN).
In conclusion, it is painfully obvious that the loud cries of "Support The Troops", replete with yellow ribbon magnets on cars and flag lapel pins, by the right-wing propaganda outlets like Limbaugh and Fox News ring eerily hollow when, on the day commemorating the 5 year anniversary of sending those very troops overseas, they say next to nothing or nothing at all.
The silence is ear-splitting.
Crossposted at PoliticalDiner.Com.