Only Two Newspapers Put 4,000 US Troop Deaths on Front Page

Posted by Steven Reynolds, The All Spin Zone at 6:52 AM on March 25, 2008.

The world the media sees simply isn’t the world as it is. That’s axiomatic here 5 years after the beginning of the Iraq War where the media served as cheerleaders. (Perhaps they were following Bush’s lead, he having served as a cheerleader at Yale.) Katharine Zaleski of Huffington Post notes that there were only two newspapers who featured the story about 4,000 US soldiers dead in Iraq on their front pages. Here’s a bit of her article at HuffPo:

It’s a sad day for America’s media when the tragic milestone of 4,000 soldiers’ deaths is reported and it appears that just two papers — yes two — place it across their front pages. After a search through today’s front pages, I found that The Rocky Mountain News in Denver and the Daily News in New York were the only papers to give their entire front pages to honoring the men and women killed in Iraq. The Los Angeles Times gave a top quarter of their front to a feature called “Stories Of The Fallen.” If I’ve missed a paper that featured the deaths across it’s entire front page then I welcome any corrections in the comment string of this post.

This was a big story, and Karen thinks the media has downplayed it. Downplayed? I’m not so sure entire front pages need to be devoted to the story of the 4,000 death milestone, but certainly this is a time to look back at the criminality that took us into Iraq in the first place, causing us to ignore the crimes of Osama bin Laden. The media surely has downplayed the notion that 97% of those deaths came after Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” photo-op on that aircraft carrier nearly five years ago. And they’re downplaying Dick Cheney’s response to 4,000 American deaths in Iraq — he notes how those soldiers were volunteers, dodging the question of the wisdom of sending them there under false pretenses. And I’m yet to see any story on how many Iraqis have died due to President Bush’s misadventure in Iraq.

Of course, today’s Philadelphia Inquirer features the 4,000 death story pretty prominently, but in a context that highlights what President Bush thinks is leadership. There’s not a whole lot of critique here as the Inquirer lets Bush’s words that the 4,000 dead were “not in vain” stand. Perhaps we can make it that those deaths are not in vain, but it is far from sure that those deaths were necessary, one of those conditions I would put on “not in vain.” Man, Bush seems in another world, and the Inquirer makes no comment about his words:

“One day people will look back at this moment in history and say, ‘Thank God there were courageous people willing to serve, because they laid the foundations for peace for generations to come,’ ” Bush said after a State Department briefing about long-term diplomacy efforts.

“I have vowed in the past, and I will vow so long as I’m president, to make sure that those lives were not lost in vain - that, in fact, there is an outcome that will merit the sacrifice,” Bush said.

At least FauxNews has it right. FauxNews is focused like a laser on Bill Richardson’s beard. Man, it is impossible to do a satire of FauxNews, as you couldn’t write anything as stupid as what they actually report.

Steven Reynolds is a regular blogger for the All Spin Zone