Tuesday, July 03, 2007

MSM Ignores al Qaeda's Massacre--UPDATE

I wrote about the massacre when Michael Yon wrote about it and I'm writing about it again. This time, it's to express outrage that the media and the reporters right in Baquba refuse to report on this.

The media continues to remove all doubt about whose side they fight for. They've stopped being a passive ally for some time. An Army colonel calls it Emotional Terrorism. Exactly.

Glenn Reynolds has more.

UPDATE: Ace says this is the reason it doesn't get reported:

Part of it is just more basic: simple vanity. Journalists' status comes from their presumption that they, and only they, have the skills necessary to report big stories.

They have an emotional investment in this ego-serving proposition.

If a non-accredited gate-crasher like Michael Yon breaks a story, it must therefore have not been a big story in the first place, otherwise, of course, they would have covered it first, right?

And something a little more than that: It embarrasses them they they seem to rely on emails from shady police operatives for their "scoops" -- without even bothering to visit the alleged site of massacres -- while Michael Yon is actually out in the field, slogging through the sand, digging -- quite literally -- for the stories they're supposed to be oh-so-expert at reporting on.
Ego. Laziness.

How much you want to bet that doofus who owns the body armor vest thing called NBC to tip them off that the U.S. uses sub-par armor? Lisa Meyer's assistant sets up the testing, gets the bogus results, gives them to Lisa who importantly "reports" it. Puhleeze. Lazy.

With the news cycle turning over so quickly, most reporters don't have the time, money, or inclination to actually investigate anything. They act on tips and that's "investigating". That makes the press easy marks.

Lazy and easy. Not an impressive combo.