I'd like to take issue with an Op-Ed in today's NYT penned by Frank Rich. He makes some good points, but, then he misses the mark on some basic facts!

He starts off...

The Iraq war’s defenders like to bash the press for pushing the bad news and ignoring the good. Maybe they’ll be happy to hear that the bad news doesn’t rate anymore. When a bomb killed at least 51 Iraqis at a Baghdad market on Tuesday, ending an extended run of relative calm, only one of the three network newscasts (NBC’s) even bothered to mention it. The only problem is that no news from Iraq isn’t good news — it’s no news.

Good points! With only the dubious claim that the bad news doesn't rate...

The night of the Baghdad bombing the CBS war correspondent Lara Logan appeared as Jon Stewart’s guest on “The Daily Show” to lament the vanishing television coverage and the even steeper falloff in viewer interest. “Tell me the last time you saw the body of a dead American soldier,” she said. After pointing out that more soldiers died in Afghanistan than Iraq last month, she asked, “Who’s paying attention to that?”

Her question was rhetorical, but there is an answer: Virtually no one. If you follow the nation’s op-ed pages and the presidential campaign, Iraq seems as contentious an issue as Vietnam was in 1968. But in the country itself, Cindy vs. Michelle, not Shiites vs. Sunnis, is the hotter battle. This isn’t the press’s fault, and it isn’t the public’s fault. It’s merely the way things are.

Do you see how he starts off with the right premise then reaches an erroneous conclusion... How can he honestly say that the public is more interested in the Cindy vs. Michelle than the Shi'a vs. Sunni battle? As I've pointed out in this earlier post, the public, according to Zogby polling, wants to know what's happening in Iraq, but, the MSM is not delivering it...

The public wants more stories about the Iraqi government and the Iraqi people

When asked about the news coverage of the Iraq war, most (80%) say the coverage has been fair or poor. When respondents were asked to pick what coverage they would like to see more of, stories about the Iraqi government and the Iraqi people were the two most chosen (68% each), followed by stories about returning soldiers (58%), stories about how war has impacted communities here in the U.S. (57%)...

It is the dismal performance of the MSM that is the root problem, not the lack of attention by the public... They're not being provided the necessary(and needed) coverage.

Juan Cole hammers home the necessity of why we need much better coverage of the plight of the Iraqis'...!

Some glaring facts not being reported...

By now, summer of 2008, excess deaths from violence in Iraq since March of 2003 must be at least a million. This conclusion can be reached more than one way. There is not much controversy about it in the scientific community. Some 310,000 of those were probably killed by US troops or by the US Air Force, with the bulk dying in bombing raids by US fighter jets and helicopter gunships on densely populated city and town quarters.

In absolute numbers, that would be like bombing to death everyone in Pittsburgh, Pa. Or Cincinnati, Oh.

Only, the US is 11 times more populous than Iraq, so 310,000 Iraqi corpses would equal 3.4 million dead Americans. So proportionally it would be like firebombing to death everyone in Chicago. [...]

Although it is very good news that the number of Iraqis killed in political violence fell in May to 532 according to official sources, the number was twice that in March and April. And,it should be remembered that independent observers have busted the Pentagon for grossly under-reporting attacks and casualties. If someone shows up dead and they aren't sure exactly why, it isn't counted as political violence, just as an ordinary murder. Attacks per day are measured by whether the mortar shell scratches any US equipment when it explodes. If not, it didn't happen. McClatchy estimated a year and a half ago that attacks were being underestimated by a factor of 10.

By the way, isn't is a little odd that the death rate fell in the month of the Great Mosul Campaign? I conclude that either it can't have been much of a campaign or someone is cooking the death statistics.[...]

...typically 3 persons are wounded for every one killed. In Iraq, I suspect it is higher, because US bombings and guerrilla bombings are such a big part of the violence. But let us be conservative.

That would mean 3 million Iraqi wounded in the past five years.

Equivalent to 33 million Americans wounded, that is, the entire state of California crippled or in bandages.

He goes on, check it out! It is a good read, but, you get the point...

Where is our MSM? They're just as complicit as this Maladministration in my opinion! It would be nice if the Fourth Estate would get back to their intended goal of being a check on governmental abuses and crimes. So much for a free and fair press as enumerated by the founding fathers...!