Lies by Lens
[posted by Callimachus]
My computer scan of the Associated Press photo wire tonight, at 8:14 p.m. Eastern, seeking pictures of U.S. military men and women in Iraq, discovers this ratio going back through Dec. 2:
There's the war, as brought to you by the Associated Press, weighted accordingly. That is the raw material from which hundreds of small-town daily newspapers will have to compile their presentation tomorrow morning for Mr. and Mrs. America.
So, let's see, as of today there are, say, 140,000 U.S. military folks working and living in Iraq. By the AP's ratios of newsiness, there must be 350,000 deserters out there protesting a war that has killed 770,000 Americans.
We yearn to run away from the place and leave the Iraqis to their butchers because we believe those 11, and those 5, are the whole of the war. And why would we think otherwise?
One wonders which president other than that fascist, dissent-oppressing Chimperor would suffer self-professed deserters from an all-volunteer army to jaunt around the nation in a big ol' bus, yattering against the war they ran from. Lincoln never would have stood for that. He would have bundled them off in the middle of the night on a one-way flight to Baladi and left them in an alley there with just a road atlas and some lunch money. One reason Dubya will never make anyone's "greatest" list.
My computer scan of the Associated Press photo wire tonight, at 8:14 p.m. Eastern, seeking pictures of U.S. military men and women in Iraq, discovers this ratio going back through Dec. 2:
- pre-mortem pictures of dead U.S. military men, or pictures of their funerals: 11
- pictures of U.S. military men who are deserters or AWOL, who are touring the U.S. West Coast by bus and speaking out against the Iraq War: 5
- pictures of U.S. military men and women on duty in Iraq: 2
There's the war, as brought to you by the Associated Press, weighted accordingly. That is the raw material from which hundreds of small-town daily newspapers will have to compile their presentation tomorrow morning for Mr. and Mrs. America.
So, let's see, as of today there are, say, 140,000 U.S. military folks working and living in Iraq. By the AP's ratios of newsiness, there must be 350,000 deserters out there protesting a war that has killed 770,000 Americans.
We yearn to run away from the place and leave the Iraqis to their butchers because we believe those 11, and those 5, are the whole of the war. And why would we think otherwise?
One wonders which president other than that fascist, dissent-oppressing Chimperor would suffer self-professed deserters from an all-volunteer army to jaunt around the nation in a big ol' bus, yattering against the war they ran from. Lincoln never would have stood for that. He would have bundled them off in the middle of the night on a one-way flight to Baladi and left them in an alley there with just a road atlas and some lunch money. One reason Dubya will never make anyone's "greatest" list.
