Iraq Elections: Same Story, Different Spin
LA Times, top of p.1: Chaos in Iraq Imperils Voting -- Security in some areas has deteriorated, U.S. officials say, stalling efforts to rebuild and threatening the elections planned for January.
Associated Press in the OC Register, p. 8: Expanded U.S. Force Likely As Elections Near -- The increase would probably come by prolonging service of some units.
The Times chooses to continue to its agenda of painting everything we do in Iraq as dark, failing and hopeless. AP, hardly a friend of the Bush adminsitration, leads with what matters more to us, that some of our troops may have extended tours through the election (which is also an indication that we're dealing with the problem). The LA Times gets to the troop extensions in pargagraph 21 of its 23-paragraph story.
The Times' lead rational for its "threat to elections" angle is this quote from William Taylor, head of the reconstruction office of the US Embassy in Baghdad, which it played in pargraph 3: "We're worried that in some areas — again, not all, in some areas — it would now be difficult to have elections." The same quote appears in paragraph 12 of the AP story.
To go from "some areas -- again, not all, in some areas" to a "threatening the elections" theme is quite a leap, even for the Times. To shore up their argument, the Times used a quote from Lt. Gen. Lance Smith, deputy commander of U.S. Central Command. Taylor is referencing the terrorists' continuing ability to intimidate (the Times refers to the terrorists almost fondly as "guerrillas"). Note how the quote also underscores the viciousness of the enemy and the need for U.S. involvment to free the Iraqi people from terrorist oppression:
"It's that part that we have got to be able to handle and take that away from [insurgents], so that people can freely get out … to vote and not go back and expect their families to be killed just because they go out and vote." I checked on what word the Times replaced with [insurgents] and found it was "them," not "terrorists." The transcript revealed the end of this quote, which the Times cut: "And there's going to take a certain level of courage on the part of the Iraqis, just like there was on the part of the Afghanis to go do that."
The Times chose to ignore this information Smith passed along at the press conference:
Troops who have searched buildings in Fallujah over the past 10 days found 431 homemade bombs, which the military calls improved explosive devices, or IEDs. By comparison, 348 IEDs were found in all of Iraq in October, Smith said. IEDs are a favored weapon of the insurgents in attacks.
Smith, a three-star general, also said it appeared that al-Zarqawi and senior leaders of the al-Qaida terrorist network had attempted to communicate, probably by courier, from Pakistan or Afghanistan.
The Times' daily circulation has dropped well over 5 percent and its Sunday circulation by over 6 percent this year over last. This during a time of economic expansion in Southern California. Lefties that they are, the editors and reporters at the Times pursue their increasingly unpopular agenda, seemingly unswayed by legitimate economic arguments.
Associated Press in the OC Register, p. 8: Expanded U.S. Force Likely As Elections Near -- The increase would probably come by prolonging service of some units.
The Times chooses to continue to its agenda of painting everything we do in Iraq as dark, failing and hopeless. AP, hardly a friend of the Bush adminsitration, leads with what matters more to us, that some of our troops may have extended tours through the election (which is also an indication that we're dealing with the problem). The LA Times gets to the troop extensions in pargagraph 21 of its 23-paragraph story.
The Times' lead rational for its "threat to elections" angle is this quote from William Taylor, head of the reconstruction office of the US Embassy in Baghdad, which it played in pargraph 3: "We're worried that in some areas — again, not all, in some areas — it would now be difficult to have elections." The same quote appears in paragraph 12 of the AP story.
To go from "some areas -- again, not all, in some areas" to a "threatening the elections" theme is quite a leap, even for the Times. To shore up their argument, the Times used a quote from Lt. Gen. Lance Smith, deputy commander of U.S. Central Command. Taylor is referencing the terrorists' continuing ability to intimidate (the Times refers to the terrorists almost fondly as "guerrillas"). Note how the quote also underscores the viciousness of the enemy and the need for U.S. involvment to free the Iraqi people from terrorist oppression:
"It's that part that we have got to be able to handle and take that away from [insurgents], so that people can freely get out … to vote and not go back and expect their families to be killed just because they go out and vote." I checked on what word the Times replaced with [insurgents] and found it was "them," not "terrorists." The transcript revealed the end of this quote, which the Times cut: "And there's going to take a certain level of courage on the part of the Iraqis, just like there was on the part of the Afghanis to go do that."
The Times chose to ignore this information Smith passed along at the press conference:
Troops who have searched buildings in Fallujah over the past 10 days found 431 homemade bombs, which the military calls improved explosive devices, or IEDs. By comparison, 348 IEDs were found in all of Iraq in October, Smith said. IEDs are a favored weapon of the insurgents in attacks.
Smith, a three-star general, also said it appeared that al-Zarqawi and senior leaders of the al-Qaida terrorist network had attempted to communicate, probably by courier, from Pakistan or Afghanistan.
The Times' daily circulation has dropped well over 5 percent and its Sunday circulation by over 6 percent this year over last. This during a time of economic expansion in Southern California. Lefties that they are, the editors and reporters at the Times pursue their increasingly unpopular agenda, seemingly unswayed by legitimate economic arguments.
posted by Laer at 9:36 AM
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