Another Milestone
By Andrew Roman
Posted On October 28, 2005
If not for milestones and anniversaries, I’m not quite sure how much is left for today’s reporter to report. And if not to serve as the veritable conscience of society, then what, pray tell, would his or her purpose be? I suppose that to suggest a reporter’s function is to actually disseminate what is going on is to refute his or her greater role in society – something more than a mere observer, collector and teller of news. Thanks to the beacon of the Watergate template, those who once simply reported on events now aspire to right the world’s ills, expose its injustices and stand as self-proclaimed overseers and scorekeepers of all that go on. Apparently, the only people who are immune to the raging tides of bias and partisanship are reporters.
Last Wednesday, the latest example of straight-laced non-biased journalism was on parade on newsstands all over Gotham as the military death toll topped 2,000 in Iraq. In lockstep, the Daily News, New York Post and Newsday each had full front page spreads letting us know that the grizzly new landmark had been reached - this following several weeks of television reports reminding us of how the death toll in Iraq was approaching two-thousand. It had a strange “Guess how much the Power Ball jackpot is up to now?” kind of feel to it. Indeed, once the big board hit the magic number, it was everywhere, right on cue, complete with morose photographs and Cindy Sheehan references. For the most part, these weren’t meant as tributes to fallen heroes. This “story” was planted into our national consciousness not because brave Americans were continuing to sacrifice their lives for this nation, but because the words “two thousand” are more lyrical and have a smoother timbre than, say, “one-thousand eight-hundred, forty two.”
It rolls off the tongue better.
Preparations for the big day probably began weeks in advance in newspaper editorial board meetings all across the country – something akin to: “Okay, folks, don’t forget. We’re approaching the 2000 death mark in Iraq soon. It’s a big deal, so get your stories ready. A couple more car bombs in Baghdad and we’re there.” Seeing as death is a hot commodity anyway, and the number “2,000” is a nice solid, round number, one could hardly question the very real possibilities of a blockbuster news day.
Nope. No bias there.
In all probability, eager wordsmiths raced back to their laptops and desktops, mouths a’ waterin’, and began composing their grim exposes in advance of the actual occasion, anticipating the inevitable announcement zipping across the wire services. Perhaps, as Don Henley sang about in his classic song Dirty Laundry, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to think that the boys (and girls) in the newsroom had a running bet as to when it might happen. Maybe an office pool of some sort. After all, “it’s interesting when people die,” isn’t it?
Safe to say, it’s Christmastime for the main stream media. One can’t help observe – and be repulsed by - the morbidly sick elation in all of this irrelevant tally-taking. What a time we live in, eh? Close your eyes and imagine, if you can, the dulcet blackboard-scratching tones of MSNBC’s Chris Matthews standing on Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944 reporting on the invasion, as it happened: “How will these thousands of American deaths here today play at home? Thus far, it’s a clear quagmire for invading Allied forces. It’s been only a few hours since the invasion began, and yet the fight is still going on. No one could have anticipated this, I don’t think. Critics of the bloody invasion say resources would have been better utilized if directed toward Japan.”
Or how about the lilting nasality of CNN’s Aaron Brown reporting from Gettysburg in 1863, “Some estimates say there are upwards of twenty thousand casualties here in Gettysburg, now into its third day of fighting here. A CNN-Gallup poll suggests that 94% of people in the Confederate States oppose Lincoln’s handling of the war. Larry King will have an exclusive sit down with a former aid to Confederate President Jefferson Davis tonight.”
If modern journalism were a living entity, it would almost contradict Darwin’s theory of natural selection. It is questionable how such an organism in its present form can continue to survive – and yet, it does somehow. For instance, in the aftermath of one of the greatest events in modern history – specifically, the democratically adopted Constitution of the formerly despotic nation of Iraq – there was barely a butterfly’s eye-lash of a whisper about it on front pages anywhere in America. This profound and monumental story with international ramifications was relegated to be buried beyond the latest “Tom Cruise and his new bride” diatribes by editors who continually note and criticize the American-centric nature of our collective attention spans. A most relevant cog in the wheel of war against Islamo-Fascist Terrorism was all but a footnote.
It’s a good thing we know that two thousand of our bravest are dead now. That sound you hear is the collective tapping of keyboards getting started on the 2,100 milestone and the 2,500 milestone … just in case.
Underlying all of this, of course, is the fact that reporting the breathtaking transformations that have taken place in Iraq over the past three-and-a-half years time would be admitting successes for George W. Bush and this administration … and that is something that absolutely cannot be allowed to happen.
What bias?
Andrew Roman is the Secretary of the Brooklyn (NY) Young Republicans.
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