Guest blogged by Jon Ponder, Pensito Review.
The stated objective of the Bush administration’s “surge” of troops into Iraq was to suppress the violence. Its unstated purpose was to get the occupation off the radar of the news networks in order to tamp down the war as a campaign issue against Republicans in this cycle. If it bleeds, it leads. Conversely, no blood, no coverage.
In that sense, the surge can be counted as one of Bush’s rare successes. According to a new poll from Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, coverage of the Iraq occupation by television news was reduced to barely a blip last month:
With no coverage, the public perception of the situation in Iraq has improved:
The survey … found that public awareness of developments in the Iraq war has dropped precipitously since last summer, as the news media have paid less attention to the conflict. In earlier surveys, about half of those asked about the death tally responded correctly.
What was the news people cared about? Figures from Pew are hardly surprising: “During the last week in January, 36 percent of those surveyed said they were most closely following campaign news, while 14 percent expressed the most interest in the stock market and 12 percent in the death of actor Heath Ledger. In contrast, 6 percent said they were most closely following coverage of Iraq.”
Meanwhile the past week or ten days has seen hundreds of civilians killed in Iraq, the Pentagon cancelling the dismal Iraq report, and a bit further back Iraq was invaded by Turkey.
And it is costing American taxpayes $12 billion a month, plus the classified amount.
Meanwhile americans are loosing homes, jobs, savings, and hope.
Yep … “you’re doin’ a heckuva job” bushies. Can’t wait for Bushie III, a.k.a. John McCain.
Fascist media’s focus yesterday (Locally) was on Oysters Oyster Farms and other nonsense.
We should be protesting in front of the NETWORK stations!
Hide the truth about al Queida Iraq:
(Raw Story). Awww … it must have hurt bushie’s feelings so they didn’t tell barnie about it.