War as Sport

Mathilde Soyer, in this BaltimoreChronicle news analysis, contrasts US media coverage of the Fallujah assault with other sources:

A review of international media coverage reveals that, in general, the US press, as in this instance, focuses on battle tactics and keeps score of US casualties, while elsewhere in the world the press is emphasizing the human costs of the war.

A USA Today story about the Iraq conflict on November 10 read: “US sends divert troops from Fallujah to Mosul to quell uprising,” sub-titled: “The US Army has diverted an infantry battalion from the fighting in Fallujah and sent them back to Mosul after an uprising there by insurgents...”

Contrast that with a British BBC news report on the same day that quoted Iraqi journalist Fadhil Badrani, a Fallujah resident who reports regularly for Reuters and “BBC World.” Referring to those who are outside the conflict, he says: “I want them to know about conditions inside this city--there are dead women and children lying on the streets....People are getting weaker from hunger. Many are dying from their injuries because there is no medical help left in the city whatsoever.”

Le Monde relates this aspect too, titling its story on November 10: “There is no surgeon left in Fallujah.”

The International Herald Tribune quotes an Iraqi journalist: "People are afraid of even looking out the window because of snipers," he said, asking that he not be named for his own safety. "The Americans are shooting anything that moves."...

One thing is sure: if the suffering of Iraqis’ civilians in Fallujah is to be considered someday, it will not be through the US press, which all too often is just following the government line like embedded journalists can be expected to do.

From such lopsided media coverage of the Fallujah story, an observer can only conclude that the so-called “free press” no longer exists in the US. Either that, or the US press is choosing to mirror the worst in US society: indifference, cruelty, greed and selfishness. Which of these conditions, one wonders, is more difficult to cure?

And, to follow up from an earlier post, here's a link Holden over at Atrios provided about the airport road in Baghdad. Talk about a bumpy ride--compared to the drive, severe turbulence in flight is a walk in the park.

Finally, not that the wingnuts will bother to confuse themselves with the facts, here's a nice collection of US and British government documents about none other than Saddam Hussein himself. They make for good background to go with this famous photo of the Butcher and Rummy: