Salon: "Team Bush couldn't be happier"

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

War? What war?
Until the recent flare-up in Najaf, Iraq had faded from the front pages -- despite continued carnage and chaos. Team Bush couldn't be happier.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/08/12/iraq_press/index.html

The media's shift away from Iraq is good news for the White House, which has watched American sentiment turn decisively against the war and specifically against President Bush's handling of the ongoing military effort. "Without question, the Bush administration is better off with no news from Iraq," says Larry Diamond, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution who served in Baghdad as an advisor to the Coalition Provisional Authority last spring.

Now the administration is much more interested in ushering the war on terror back into the foreground, while shuffling Iraq into the background. "Terrorism news trumps Iraq news for Bush," says Juan Cole, a professor of modern Middle Eastern history at the University of Michigan. The emphasis on terrorism news fits with Bush's poll results. Fifty-two percent of Americans approve of how Bush is handling the war on terror, compared with just 37 approving of his actions in Iraq, according to the latest CBS poll.

Yet the diminished attention to Iraq has created an odd media disconnect. While most pundits agree Iraq will be a key issue in November, Americans are being exposed to less reporting and analysis about the war. "There's an inverse relationship in press coverage and the situation in Iraq," says Cook. "It's amazing; the press has grown weary of reporting the same story regardless of how important it is. It is the issue in the campaign."

"Iraqis are so embittered and completely lost any faith in us, even the most pro-American Iraqis," says the Philadelphia Inquirer's Dilanian, who says he has had a profound change of heart on the topic. Last April, fresh from reporting in Iraq, an optimistic Dilanian wrote that the press was ignoring improvements in Iraq and underplaying the chance for a real turnaround. In late June he returned to Baghdad to cover the sovereignty hand-over. Summing up his new grim impressions in an Aug. 1 article, Dilanian admitted his earlier prediction was wrong and wrote, "The situation in Iraq right now is not as bad as the news media are portraying it to be. It's worse. Most Iraqis aren't seeing the improvements they had hoped for, and they're not blaming the guerrillas -- they're blaming the Americans. Sovereignty seems to have had zero effect on this equation."

[newscaster]

1. Hey guys,listen up....

Just because not everyone is talking about the war doesnt mean we all of a sudden approve of it. And lets face it, most of the talk has been about war.....Kerry's service and Shrub's non-service.
They would be so happy if we all turn to the economy and jobs and unemployment and outsourcing.

[Doctor_J]

2. translation:

media whoring for *. What a shock.

[DeepModem Mom]

3. kick

[HamdenRice]

4. The media is not "tired" of reporting on Iraq

This is a great post -- thanks for the cross ref. But I disagree with the original article that the media gets tired of reporting the same story. Every morning I hear these idiots on NBC and CNN reporting as the equivalent of a FRONT PAGE story, the Laci Peterson murder trial and the Kobe Bryant rape trial. Why don't they tire of these idiotic irrelevant stories? Because perhaps Karl Rove has not sent them a memo telling them to stop reporting? Because the Iraqi and so called coalition has not reduced access?

It is disgusting to see what the priorities of the media are. They pretend to be gung ho patriotic -- yet they don't report the death of each and every American soldier in Iraq.

[NewJeffCT]

5. Well, most TV producers & newspaper publishers/editors are Republican

So, they are just bowing to the Party Line. If Conrad Black, who owns a gazillion newspapers, Rupert Murdoch & Richard Mellon Scaife and others tell their staffs not to put Iraq anywhere near the front page or at the top of the hour on TV, the staff has no choice but to follow orders.

I was disgusted this past Sunday at my local Tribune (Black) controlled newspaper, the Hartford Courant. The first mention of Iraq was on Page A11. Nothing in the first 10 pages, nothing on the front page. Iraq started going to hell in a handbasket last week, and nothing.

[Mari333]

6. The press has grown weary of the war? Some of us live it every day

with kids over there..the press corps have never questioned the war, never question Bush, never even thought to have the chutzpah or integrity to demand that the Iraq war be covered , never shown the coffins of the dead, never shown the bodies of the dead in Iraq, never done a thing to expose the lies lies and more lies about this murderous campaign by the insane bastards in the WH ..Ignorant fools!! Some of us have to live it every goddamned day, wondering when the next email will come, wondering if our kid will be alive, wondering if our loved one has survived, wondering if he will come home with a thousand yard stare from what he has seen, having to go to a counselor for stress, having panic attacks, not being able to sleep at night, sometimes curling up in a fetal position and crying for days at a time...and the press has grown weary???
Hell the goddamn press hasnt done a goddamn thing..fuck them..still whoring for the Bush administration.
I lost all respect I had for the media whores a long time ago..
Send them to me..Ill tell them about weary.
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