Baby's Breath

Just watching the craven machinations of the American mainstream media is a full time job. And a mighty annoying one at that. Hotpotatomash signalled me on this one, but it is up at Hoffmania and Rising Hegemon and, I'm sure, many, many other places. But the mainstream media, as evidenced by Newsweek here, isn't necessarily bad all the time. In fact, their international distribution appears to contain a rather interesting albeit grim article about the losing proposition in Afghanistan.

But not in America. In American -- just before critical mid-term elections -- Americans will not get to see a cover of a jihadist, an RPG and the word "Losing" confronting them at the newsstands, but rather one displaying Annie Leibovitz with ... babies. How adorable. Afghanistan? Why, don't muddled your head with all those images that might evoke negative emotional twinges about George Bush's deadly presidency. Certainly not before the election.

Mash thinks that Americans might actually want to know about the situation in Afghanistan, since its newsworthy and all. And I suspect he is right. It wouldn't do much good for the American psyche, however, and that is where the problem arises. The MSM is not about to damage -- further anyway -- the psyche of the American public by putting a picture of a big, fat RPG pointing at them on the cover of major news weekly mere weeks before the election. I can already hear the excuse and it will be something along those very lines; Newsweek will claim that it is trying to avoid introducing information that might negatively impact campaigns. Because, god forbid, the American public should be informed before an election. Oh, I can hear it all now, that familiar refrain. As a responsible media outlet, Newsweek, you see, is avoiding partisanship.

So, as Afghanistan swirls down the drain of failed military excursions launched by the same idiots who gave us the Iraq debacle, the rest of the world will see the front picture of Newsweek, grab the magazine expecting to learn something of what is going on in the war-torn land. But in America, we get Annie Leibovitz. Holding babies.