I got up this AM and turned on FOXNews Sunday and immediately learned that the Iraqi election turnout was a huge success, estimated to be around 72% of eligible voters, and that although there was a total of 39 (at 11:30 am PST that number is up to 44) killed in terrorist attacks, that number, indeed the total number of incidents was much less than had been expected.

Chris Wallace then interviewed the newly confirmed Sec. of State, Condoleezza Rice, where she celebrated the courage of the Iraqi people in their determination to brave the threats of violence and vote. She saw the initial turnout figures not only as a vindication of the policies of the Bush administration, but as proof that the hunger for democracy is strong in the Middle East.

“What we are seeing today is what the Iraqis want their future to be,” Rice said on “Fox News Sunday.”

“They want it to be one based on democracy on the vote, not the gun. And yet there are some terrible thugs, mostly from the old regime, who are trying to forestall that process, and we saw today that they are not succeeding.” … (from ABCNews coverage)

“What we are seeing here is the emergence of an Iraqi voice of freedom,” Rice said on ABC. “No, it’s not a perfect election,” Rice conceded, but she called it a positive development no one had foreseen three years ago when Saddam Hussein was still the dictator of Iraq.

OK, didn’t get to see what was on Face the Nation or ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos, so I don’t know if they were celebrating, denouncing or ignoring the historic relevance of the first free election in Iraq in over 50 years, but when I opened up today’s LA Times I got the full brunt of the Tribune Co.’s take on it right there on page 1.

“Iraqis Cast Ballots Amid Explosions and Anxiety”
“Voting gets off to a slow start, and blasts are reported in several cities. …”

In this print edition, which went to bed late last night only hours after the polls opened in Iraq, the large sub-head on page-13 where the page-1 story continues is

“Iraqi voters Trickle Into Polling Centers”.

You would at least think that the managing editor that had to decide on that headline “yesterday” would have gone with something more neutral, something that wouldn’t make him/her look so much like a stupid a*s if the election turnout was actually good. Instead of good, by all measures of elections in this good ol’ U.S. of A., it was stupendous. Can one even imagine a U.S. national election that would bring out 72% of the electorate? I can’t. Voter apathy here is too high and we take our freedoms, one of which is the “right to vote”, too much for granted.

Alright, expected as much, but what lead story are they reporting online right now at LATimes.com?

“Voting Ends in Iraq; Attacks Kill 36″
“Iraqis defy threats of violence, turning out in large numbers to cast ballots. Polling stations hit by mortars, suicide bombings.”

If you get through the attack and body count paragraphs, along with the doom-and-gloom about how tough it is going to be in the future, you finally get to these quotes from Iraqis that voted. Guess even the hard-core lefties at the Times couldn’t find a voting Iraqi that would denigrate the process, or not be hopeful over the result!

“I’m proud of this ink,” said resident Jabber Hajer, 65, proudly waving an index finger soaked to the knuckle in purple ink to prevent multiple voting. “To me, it represents freedom. We want the elections like the thirsty want water. Those who do not participate are the losers.” …

“We Kurds have been shedding our blood for more than 80 years,” said Karim Abdulla Marif, a cigarette factory worker in a black and white headdress who had just cast his vote. “I wasn’t concerned about voting This means something good will finally happen to us. It’s the happiest moment of my life.”

I never read the LA Times Sunday Magazine, but did notice the cover which highlights this week’s main story, “Who’s Dying in Our War?” Hugh Hewitt noticed it too and makes the following comments on his Blog,

That’s my reaction to this cover this morning. Some jerk or jerks at the Los Angeles Times decided to use the death of Americans to detract from the victory they secured over fascism and terror. They knew it would be a day of celebration in Iraq, but rather than celebrate with the Iraqi people, they chose today to run a story designed to diminish American appreciation of the achievement won at such a high cost. … “

I love sitting down with a newspaper in the morning, sipping my coffee, trying to understand the world a little bit better. Usually, even with a slanted rag such as the Times, you can read through the spin and get a gist for the story, but lately this Tribune Co.’s Los Angeles outlet doesn’t just spin, it so overbalances its coverage of almost everything to a hard left slant that there are no alternate opinions to consider.

I was not encouraged, but at least a bit entertained when they started a new feature called “OUTSIDE THE TENT” in their Sunday Opinion section where guest columnist are allowed to blast the paper for its editorial content. Hugh Hewitt was one of the first few to write for this column, and as left-slanted as the LA Times is, all of the columns to date have been from the “right”, until today. Today we get “The Times’ ‘Blazing Straddle’” – from Marc Cooper, a contributing editor to The Nation, a columnist for L.A. Weekly and a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Justice and Journalism at the USC Annenberg School for Communication, wherein he blasts the paper for being “too objective” in its journalistic coverage, especially in its coverage of the War on Terror.

The Times should have the courage to run more of these first-person pieces full of personal observation, analysis and interpretation from a staff of reporters more than able to provide them. I suspect the resulting product would be contradictory — different reporters seeing different realities. So what?

Believe it or not, readers are more than smart enough to figure out who and what to trust or not trust. Anyway, there is no single objective truth about anything. And the more The Times at least implicitly continues to argue there is, the less confidence, the less investment, an increasingly media-savvy readership will have in the product.

Let’s break this down.

• He is saying that the Times should put more (more?) personal “opinion and analysis” in their news stories (not the editorial pages).
• That readers would bear the responsibility of figuring out which personal interpretation was truth and which was fiction.
• That providing multiple sides of a story is somehow implying there is a “single objective truth” about the story’s content (???)
• And finally that the more the Times tries to provide “objective” information in its NEWS section instead of “analysis and interpretation”, the less confidence an “increasingly media-savvy readership” (readers in West Hollywood & West LA?) will have in the product.

About what is to be expected from an LA Weekly columnist, as the “Weakly” never prints a non-leftists slanted article. Might as well call it the LA Pravda! But the point I want to make here is that it takes a raging socialist rag like the Weekly to see the LA Times as an agent of too-conservative information.

So I’m conflicted. Should I cancel my subscription or keep reading through the spin. I’ll let you know when I finally decide. Until then, I’ll continue to complain here! (db)

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 30th, 2005 at 12:38 pm and is filed under Focus On Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.  |   Print This Post  |   Email This Post

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