The daily dose of gloom and doom is certainly nothing new. The News business can't survive on feel-good stories alone, it just doesn't appeal to human nature. But it's one thing to sensationalize an airplane crash, it's quite another to purposely make what should be good news appear bad.
In his latest NRO column Victor Davis Hanson suggests that Prozac and Xanax might have a piece of the mainstream news market. Hanson makes the point that Bush administration policies are hardly failing, despite what we're being told. The media has been successful to some degree--a recent survey said about a third of us don't think we can succeed in Iraq, and most of those thought Bush should be impeached.
I can only add one thing to his excellent column. It was reported during the last presidential election that most reporters in the trenches and in newsrooms voted democrat. This sets up an "I told you so" mentality that must be almost impossible to suppress. It's too easy for those voting for the losing candidate to become overly invested in the failure of the winner, to the point of seeing everything through a faded ideological lens.
MORE 12/16
We can easily segue from Mr. Hanson's characterization of the media into the plethora of stories they've tried to sensationalize during the length of the War on Terror, from Abu Ghraib to Guantanamo prisoner detainments, Jose Padilla and the definition of enemy combatants, the rendition and secret prison programs, and now the NSA spy story.
Bush considers all of these actions as necessary to protect Americans during a serious time of threat to our nation. The MSM seems to consider all these actions as a pathway to fascism. That opinion is joined by most on the left who are cheering from the sidelines and calling for impeachment.
Reality check. Everyone saw 9/11 occur on television (which was intentional, making it impossible for the government to deny it and increasing the terror impact) yet many seem to have "moved on" and simply believe it was an isolated event, a tragedy. No folks, it was an attack.
The public's collective memory disappeared similarly after the first WTC attack in 1993. By the way, when is the last time you heard someone in the media admit the two attacks were connected? They were. These same terrorists are still lethal and are still at war with us, no matter what people believe Bush might be doing. Impeaching Bush or stopping the NSA from listening to international phone calls will not change their zeal to kill infidels.
FINAL THOUGHT 12/16
Two wrongs don't make a right, but this chronology tends to place President Bush's recent actions regards CIA/NSA into context. Just imagine if Bush had taken the steps Roosevelt did during World War II. Roosevelt's idea was this--if the country is defeated our civil liberties won't matter anymore. He was prioritizing.
We can look back and argue that it was wrong, but presidents charged with defending the republic sometimes make unpopular judgment calls in support of that task. There is no difference today, just a different war.
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