MSM and the Bush Speech

After the better part of a decade of 'new media' talking about mainstream media bias, I felt the issue had been put to sleep both by repetition and by MSM efforts to better balance their coverage.

Well I just got off a plane. One of those planes which has televised news (and televised MTV garbage). And I admit without pride that after reviewing the sedra a while I checked out the news. When the news mentioned President Bush making a major speech at 11:15am I resolved to tune in, since I never have the occasion to hear an entire speech.

The speech struck me as earnest, straightforward, and thoughtful. The Q & A afterward was candid. The president made many interesting points, including one that Israel's last best hope is the democratization of the Arab world. I realize there can be honest differences of opinion about this, but that worthwhile debate is not my point here.
In the Q & A, the president answered a question asking how many Iraqi deaths resulted from the freeing of Iraq, and responded 'about 30,000'.

Well. on the way home from the airport I tuned in to WCBS to get the traffic report. After the traffic came the hourly network news. The Bush speech was the lead. It went: "President Bush admits to 30,000 deaths in Iraq" No further excerpt , no summary, nothing.

Then Newsradio 88 carried a lengthy antiwar kickback from Congressman Murtha ending "we will not leave Iraq for 25 years".

The Rushs and Seans still have a valid point, amazingly enough.
[Bush Speech]