Krugman: "WHAT ABOUT IRAQ?" News black-out; "stay course" "leads downhill"

[DeepModem Mom]

OP-ED COLUMNIST
What About Iraq?
By PAUL KRUGMAN

Published: August 6, 2004

A funny thing happened after the United States transferred sovereignty over Iraq. On the ground, things didn't change, except for the worse.

But as Matthew Yglesias of The American Prospect puts it, the cosmetic change in regime had the effect of "Afghanizing" the media coverage of Iraq.

He's referring to the way news coverage of Afghanistan dropped off sharply after the initial military defeat of the Taliban. A nation we had gone to war to liberate and had promised to secure and rebuild - a promise largely broken - once again became a small, faraway country of which we knew nothing.

Incredibly, the same thing happened to Iraq after June 28. Iraq stories moved to the inside pages of newspapers, and largely off TV screens. Many people got the impression that things had improved. Even journalists were taken in: a number of newspaper stories asserted that the rate of U.S. losses there fell after the handoff. (Actual figures: 42 American soldiers died in June, and 54 in July.)...

***

One thing is clear: calls to "stay the course" are fatuous. The course we're on leads downhill. American soldiers keep winning battles, but we're losing the war: our military is under severe strain; we're creating more terrorists than we're killing; our reputation, including our moral authority, is damaged each month this goes on....

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/06/opinion/06krugman.html?hp

[moondust]

1. But...we've turned the corner.

If there was one thing that was utterly predictable about the entire Iraq misadventure it was that Bushco would do something/anything to get the bad news out of Iraq out of the news in the U.S. in the period leading up to the November election.

[Disturbed]

2. Iraq is Imploding

The Neo Fascists have instructed the US Mass Media to downplay the Iraq debacle and casualties in order to keep the American potential voter's mind off of the failure of the Neo Fascists in Iraq. Afghanistan? That country is off the radar screen and a huge freakin' failure.

[FloridaPat]

3. Even jounalists were taken in? What are they teaching in

journalism schools these days. They've been taken in since Bush got in the White House.

[Junkdrawer]

4. What are they teaching? "Manufacturing Consent" 101,

"Lie on Page 1, Retract on Page 15" 201

"Advanced Empty Chair Interviews" 301

and, for the honor students:

"Inventing Stories out of Whole Cloth" 401

[Eurobabe]

5. only way to find out what's going on is BBC

news at 6pm here. Or reading foreign sources online.

They figured it out in the WH that all Iraq/all the time was not good for Bu$h's poll numbers.

MEMO to MEDIA: Ixnay on Iraqnay!

[DeepModem Mom]

7. I'm assuming CNN did not air a CNN Int. interview w/ a Phil. Inquirer...

reporter who told the truth yesterday? The reporter, Ken Dilanian, had made a point of writing "positive" reports from Iraq, but said that those reports were now "irrelevant." Everything has gone to hell there. I saw the interview on CNN International in the UK. CNN domestic obviously had access to the interview. Did anyone see it? Is this an example of CNN, and other US media, hiding the deteriorating situation in Iraq from America's citizens?

[leftchick]

8. I watch BBCAmerica at 8:00 AM every morning.....

Thank God for it! It has the best coverage of Iraq available in the US as far as I know. This morning things are looking pretty damn grim too. :(

[Inland]

6. Worst of all worlds

Bush gets to pretend that Iraq's disaster isn't his problem but that of the Iraqi government, the press gets to ignore the place, but we still have 140,000 soldiers there and getting killed at increased rates.

We stay while Iraq is on the same downhill spiral we would have seen in Iraq if we had bugged out. Worst of all worlds.