All of the big news organizations (and Fox "News") like to put fancy logos on the major news events, as if they were
packaging a new TV sitcom. But none of them have anything over the fake news folks over at The Daily Show who nail it by calling their "coverage" of the war in Iraq Mess O’ Potamia, recently upgraded to GIANT Mess O’ Potamia. That says it all: this is a giant mess.
However, as bad as the situation in Iraq has become, nothing tops the response to the events by W and his apologists. In reading and watching the coverage of the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers, I got the impression that these guys were mostly upset with the fact that anyone would dare print the pictures and tell the story. At least one talking head went so far as to imply that the news organizations showing the pictures were guilty of treason for aiding the enemy. The real bottom feeders are the rationalizers who dismiss all of it by saying something to the effect that this wasn’t so bad since there are worse abuses in <insert name of favorite enemy here>. That’s an attitude that should have been left in high school.
But the capper to the past few weeks has to be W’s line about the country owing a debt of gratitude to Rumsfeld. We owe Rumsfeld unemployment not gratitude.
Update (5/13/04) – Man, does this ever summarize the penalty phase of the whole mess!