“Oh, that article is by Thomas Paine, he’s a liberal, but, he can turn a phrase.”

When you see an article written by someone whose work you have read before, you know how much weight to give it. I loved reading Safire because you knew his perspective. You can run down Hearst all you want, but, when you picked up one of Willie’s papers you knew where they were comming from. I think our country was better off when the media put their bias on the masthead than we are now when they lie to us and claim to be fair.

Skip, I’m sorry but I’m not 100% convinced of this. People buy what the media sells, like sheep or lemmings. I’m not so sure how much influence the reader actually has on the content. I’d be just as happy if my state’s paper (a common rag, so really not a fair comparison here but it’s what I have to go on) had more good news on the front page than bad.

And while some people know where to find balanced sources of the news – like myself – I don’t believe the majority do. I just had lunch with someone today who clearly doesn’t read anything but the state paper here and it’s pretty close to “yellow journalism”. It was obvious she doesn’t read anything else to find the balance – and I’d call her a pretty smart, well educated individual. So while the more balanced outlets are there, I question whether most people either know where to look or worse, have the desire.

Additionally, one cannot combine the media , protected by the the right to free speech and participating in the free market, with the broadcast media which is regulated by the central government and obligated to curry favor with it.

But actually they do. Just like in domestic news, you have to know where to look.

Blaming the “Main Stream Media” is the lazy way out in my opinion. If the good news seems out numbered by the bad, its because that ratio is pretty correct. There is more bad news in Iraq than good, thanks to the fact that Iraq is still a dysfunctional society and will be for some time to come. That’s not the fault of the messenger, its the fault of the Iraqis.

You want good news about Iraq? Its there. You can go to DOD media, BBC, Several American papers, Fox news, and conservative outlets in America and Britain. You want bad news? Just dial in any major American or foreign paper. There is lots to behold. To find the ground truth one has to read both sets of media and figure it out.

I can read plenty of stories of compassion and keeping the faith, from more than just Michael Yon’s blog. However as Herman Wouk wrote, (paraphrased) ” When I’m among [Americans] I don’t sense or fear perfidy. But war weariness is something else. The [insurgent] resilence is ominous. ……….bloodshed on the battlefield remains the decisive thing in wars, and people can only stand so much of it without hope of relief. ”

In the end, the facts are what they are. And normal societies do not go around blowing up cars and people…….(even in Ireland they have learned that.) . So as has been the case for at least the last 200 years, bad news sells.
That’s not the fault of the media, its the fault of the reader who buys the paper. They determine the market.

Skip, I agree with you in theory. But in practice, as Lex has said, it doesn’t fit – every day good and bad things happen in this country and most MSM report some of both. But when it comes to the war, they only thing they seem to want to focus on is the bad. And that’s the elemental problem, at least to me.