29 August 2004

Countdown to 1,000

Sometime in the next few days -- possibly just after the Liars Club Convention in NYC -- we will lose our 1,000th serviceperson in Iraq, a country I am increasingly convinced we never should have gone to at all. We are, as I write this, only 28 people away from that point.

This is another golden opportunity to find out exactly how conservatively-biased your preferred news channel really is. If they spend anything less than two complete 24-hour news cycles commenting on this point -- particularly if, fate forbid, it should happen during or immediately after the Liar's Club Convention -- I think you can fairly write that given channel/newspaper/radio show/service off as conservatively-biased and abandoned of true journalistic principles, and thus change your viewing/listening habits accordingly.

It should go without saying that a liberally-biased news organisation, by contrast, wouldn't let it go at all, and would keep bringing it up for at least a month if not right up till the election. The Sunday talk shows are an exception, since they tend to at least mention (if not honestly or fully report) issues of some depth and substance, since their target audience are self-admitted news junkies.

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