Big Lizards:Blog:Entry “Oh Yeah, We Almost Forgot...”

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April 10, 2007

Oh Yeah, We Almost Forgot...

Hatched by Dafydd

To me, it seems that the "elite" media has gotten worse at reporting the war against global jihadism with every passing month; but this may be the nadir. Today's AP story goes beyond merely being surly about success or trying to shoehorn everything into a "gloss" of failure and defeat. This is positively brazen in its bias.

The story is 25 grafs long, and it's a typical hodgepodge of everything up to the kitchen stink, all crammed together and overcooked like my grandmother's tsimmis. It discusses:

A gunbattle in Baghdad; notice what is missing from the account:
U.S. and Iraqi soldiers fought a daylong battle with insurgents in a violent area of central Baghdad on Tuesday, leaving four Iraqi soldiers dead and 16 U.S. soldiers wounded, the military said.

The U.S. and Iraqi forces came under fire by insurgents early Tuesday in the predominantly Sunni Fadhil neighborhood - a criminal stronghold in the center of the capital.

A U.S. helicopter was hit by ground fire after it strafed the insurgents, but it returned safely to its base, the military said in a statement.

Two Iraqi soldiers and a child were also wounded.

Let's see... how about any information on enemy casualties, captures, or whether we got the attackers? Or even who won.

But that's not all; there's plenty more bad news to report!

A woman who set off a suicide bomb among some police recruits, killing 16 Iraqis.

Another account of a gunbattle; the story is written so badly, it's impossible to figure out whether it's the same one described in the first paragraph (likely) or a different but strikingly similar battle elsewhere (possible, I suppose).

Artillery fire that "rang out across Baghdad at midday." But we must be losing, because according to the Associated Press, "the target was unclear." Withdraw the troops immediately!

A car bomb that was targeting Baghdad University but which exploded at a checkpoint instead. (Pssst... doesn't that mean the security forces did their jobs?)

A Katyusha rocket fired at a grade school, killing a first-grader.

Now we come to AP's favorite part, judging from how often they find a way to squeeze it into stories, whether it fits or not:

The daily litany of how many Americans died in a war that (we all know) is hopeless...
The U.S. military announced the deaths Monday of four U.S. soldiers - three killed by a roadside bomb and a secondary explosion in southeastern Baghdad and another killed in combat in western Anbar province.

The unit with the three dead soldiers had been conducting raids against militants in the area, and had recently captured five suspects, it said....

At least 3,285 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the war in 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes seven military civilians.

Oh, but we're not done yet... bad news all around! It might at first seem like good news, but AP takes up the anointed-man's burden to find the much more important negative counterpoint:

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is against timetables for withdrawal; but on the other hand, there was a "massive rally" called by Sadr. Naturally, then, we can discount Maliki's opposition to timetables.

Let's pause a moment to catch our breath here. Remember, this is all one story. (Perhaps AP should simply publish a column titled the Daily Lamentation.)

We're almost done; the end is in sight. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and the story is within measurable distance of ending.

We've reached the point where boring, pointless trivia is appended to the nearest handy Iraq story, since they can't figure out where else to put it. Such as Maliki's travel itinerary:

"While he was in Japan, al-Maliki's office issued a statement saying he would travel to Egypt on April 20 for talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and the head of the Arab League, Amr Moussa."

...And curious facts about world geography:

"It would be al-Maliki's first visit to Egypt - the Arab world's most populous nation." [AP neglects to mention the pyramids, the Sphynx, and Howard Carter's amazing discoveries, financed by Lord Carnarvon, in the Valley of Kings.]

The foregoing accounts for 24 of 25 grafs. In the very last paragraph, AP suddenly remembers something they almost forgot. I think they found it in a shoebox, inside a locked filing cabinet, in a disused lavoratory, with a sign on the door saying "beware of the leopard."

Grudgingly, having nowhere else to put it, they tack it onto the end of this otherwise urgent liturgical recitation of sour news, ranging from dismal to dire. As an afterthought:

Also Tuesday, the U.S. military said it captured more than 150 suspected insurgents in a nearly two-week operation north of Baghdad. Rocket-propelled grenades and launchers, automatic machine guns, sniper rifles and anti-tank mines [probably more Iranian-made explosively-formed penetrators -- the Mgt.] were also seized, it said.

Oh well; I suppose journalistic standards insisted that they mention it somewhere...

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, April 10, 2007, at the time of 1:59 PM

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Comments

The following hissed in response by: Mr. Michael

But Dafydd, you have to admit how balanced the article is... that last paragraph by itself destroys the image that the previous 24 had sought to convey! Going into any detail or analysis on that slice of Victory would have made the whole article look like it was some sort of Rovian Propaganda in a bald attempt to politically influence the readers.

AP can't do that... it would be majorly unethical and stuff.

The above hissed in response by: Mr. Michael at April 10, 2007 3:50 PM

The following hissed in response by: hunter

BL,
Don't you worry your head none, ya here? As soon as the dhimmies get all 3 branches of govt. back under their control, they will regulate the internet, radio and squash that pesky Fox. Then you won't have to get your panties in a bunch worrying about the agenda driven news. At least not where anyone can pay attention.

The above hissed in response by: hunter at April 10, 2007 4:34 PM

The following hissed in response by: KarmiCommunist

i try to avoid all the MSM hype (which is impossible even for a swamp hermit), but some slips through...especially the headlines whilst surfing for something totally non-MSM ‘news’ like Internet shopping, Football (Fantasy Football sites especially), etc. At some point searching is required...Example: my jon boat is so old that it doesn’t have that metal plaque listing maximum load and power capacities (which started around 1972). My jon boat is one of the first ones made with aluminum...i’m talking old here. Anyway, whilst recently poaching for manatee (after a night of gator poaching), i noticed water inside the boat soon after shoving off from shore, which is quite unusual since i hadn’t landed a harpooned manatee yet. The jon boat’s first leak, and i had no clue as to how to even find where the leaking was coming from...not to mention how to stop it (turned out that a couple of rivets were lose).

(BTW, poaching for gators and manatee is illegal, and the sentence for being found with a harpooned manatee in yore boat is a sure death sentence, in terms of time spent in prison serving it. Thus the boat must be faster than the Law’s boat...even with the load of a BULL Manatee in it, and a leaking boat is a “no-no” in poaching since it can become slow when one needs it to be fast...so to speak.) Searching the Internet for a topic like stopping yore jon boat’s rivets from leaking requires a stop at Google or a similar site. Headlines are everywhere there. This caught my eye: Silencing Muslim moderates, and i foolishly followed it.

Dafydd wrote:

To me, it seems that the "elite" media has gotten worse at reporting the war against global jihadism with every passing month; but this may be the nadir. Today's AP story goes beyond merely being surly about success or trying to shoehorn everything into a "gloss" of failure and defeat. This is positively brazen in its bias.

That required another search...this time for the meaning of "nadir". Meaning - the lowest point. In my humble opinion, the AP article that Dafydd linked to was neither "nadir" nor "brazen" nor "bias". It is simply the M.O. (Modus operandi of the AP, the "elite" media, the MSM, etc.

Basically, 'They' (AP, "elite" media, MSM, etc.) cover for the Democrat Party and America's Liberals until the latter can show up...so to speak. Example: The 'They' were predicting "5000 body-bags in Afghanistan during first year." Then the 'They' were predicting "5000 body-bags in Iraq during first year." Those predictions were wrong 'right-from-the-gate', and Dafydd ab Hugh was probably the first to point it out using an actual comparison chart. Recall how silent that the Democrat Party and 99.9% of the American Liberals were back then. Look at them now. Heck, 'They' covered sooooooo well, that many Democrat Congress 'people' now claim that "Bush lied to them about the facts", and that caused them to "vote that way".

The NADIR in all of this can be traced back to 'Their' (you should know who by now) positively *FALSE* 'nEwS' *LIE* that "American troops bogged down" after our Troops were in Iraq for just *THREE* days!!!

If Americans can't fix the problems here, then some radical will finally show up...suggesting a General H. Norman Schwarzkopf sort of end sweep that avoids American Troops, and strikes at the American 'Home Land' once again. i would...

KårmiÇømmünîs†

The above hissed in response by: KarmiCommunist at April 10, 2007 4:41 PM

The following hissed in response by: Hal

Hey . . . I think I've seen that bit about the "Beware of Leopard" sign. Is that Douglas Adams?

The above hissed in response by: Hal at April 11, 2007 8:05 AM

The following hissed in response by: Dafydd ab Hugh

Hal:

Yes, first episode. I think that's where Arthur Dent finds the plans for the highway the government plans to run through his house.

Dafydd

The above hissed in response by: Dafydd ab Hugh at April 11, 2007 12:29 PM