The Iraq war is no longer newsworthy

The Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism found recently that news media coverage of the war in Iraq is dropping and, as a result, American support for the conflict is rising.

In other words, less news is good news for George W. Bush and his failed war. Wall-to-wall coverage of the upcoming Presidential primaries along with the latest antics of a pantyless Britney Spears and any other bimbo du jour is more important than an illegal and immoral war where the American death toll is fast closing in on 4,000.

As Don Henley of Eagles fame sang in his stinging indictment of the news business, Dirty Laundry:

Well, I coulda been an actor, but I wound up here
I just have to look good, I don’t have to be clear
Come and whisper in my ear
Give us dirty laundry

We can do the innuendo
We can dance and sing
When its said and done we haven’t told you a thing
We all know that crap is king
Give us dirty laundry!

From the beginning, the mainstream news media has aided and abetted Bush’s con job on Iraq. Before the invasion, they accepted – without question or investigation – his lies about weapons of mass destruction, mobile chemical weapons factories and non-existent ties between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden.

In recent weeks, news anchors under heavy security have traveled around carefully-prepared routes in Baghdad so they could file propaganda reports about increased safety in that civil war-torn country. Reality shows have more truth than television news reports from Iraq.

As a longtime member of the so-called “profession” of journalism, I am embarrassed and ashamed of the willingness of the media to accept shameless promotion from an administration known for lying to the media, Congress, the American public and the world.

The media helped sell Bush’s war before it started and now it is helping sell the illusion that things are improving in a country ravaged by a war we started and one that will probably never end.

Perhaps some find photos of a fading pop singer’s shaved vagina news worthy. Perhaps others would rather read about the latest manufactured pap from a pre-packaged political candidate than know about the latest news about Americans’ dead and dying in a war that we never should have launched against a country that posed no threat to us or the world.

If so, then we are, indeed, a nation hurtling headlong down the slope towards self-destruction.

Sorry. Gotta go. There’s another police chase on MSNBC.