Now I know I may sound harsh, and that is not my intention, but since when does a journalist being injured in Iraq become front page, headline news? And why the sudden focus on IED’s? They have been going off in Iraq for years now. Since when does the media become a story unto itself?
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/01/30/iraq/main1252980.shtmlhttp://
Two days ago Bob Woodruff and Doug Vogt, his cameraman, were seriously injured when an IED went off next to the vehicle they were riding in. Now this is a serious thing for Mr. Woodruff and Mr. Vogt. But why the front page headlines and the top of the hour updates on their conditions? Since when is a reporter front page news when he is injured doing his job? 79 have been killed in Iraq since the war started. Have you heard about each one? What about all the fine men and women of the armed forces that are injured everyday?
This story has brought renewed interest because it is point they can use to talk about the IED’s and how “unsafe” travel is in Iraq is according to the MSM. What they tell you is there were 220 IED attacks across Iraq that day. What they fail to tell you is the almost 300 IED’s found that week that were discovered and disabled before they could injure anyone. What they fail to tell you is all the successful patrols where no one is injured, terrorist are captured or killed, IED's are found and disabled and other things of a "good" nature happen.
Maybe there is so little bad news for them to report now from Iraq that they grasp at anything that they can to show the “horror” and ‘violence” going on over there. What they keep forgetting is that Mr. Woodruff and Mr. Vogt knew the dangers and requested to go out on that patrol. They also forget to mention something. Let me ask you this question. How many others were injured or killed in that very same attack? Don’t know? Why isn’t that important to the story?
The MSM continues to show just exactly what they are made of and how they pick only those stories that show Iraq and anything to do with it in a negative light. My local newspaper yesterday almost made me cheer, but the cheer died in my throat as I read further in a story. They posted a positive headline about Iraq, then had to put a sub headline that was negative in nature. They had caught, then lost my attention. I wonder if they knew people were not reading the story based on the sub-heading.
The MSM has lost its collective mind. When they themselves become such a story that they cover themselves rather than the real news and events, it has reached a point where the MSM professionalism and un-biased reporting is a thing of the past. Instead of trusting the MSM for un-biased, complete coverage of a subject I find myself forced to search out several sources before I get the whole story. I wonder if they care. Probably not. Think they will care when no one watches their channel or buys their papers anymore? They will more than likely just move their information they are feeding to the public to the Internet and hope they can survive.
I foresee a new breed of reporter someday. One who reports honestly and directly to the web, unedited by some editor with an axe to grind. Oh that’s right, we have those already, they are the men and women in the military that are posting their own blogs to try and “get the word out” what its really like.
