Carnage Continues in Iraq

The corporate media continues to downplay the continuing carnage in Iraq, reinforcing White House administration’s claims the so-called “surge” is working.

Corporate media outlets, of course, have bigger stories to report these days, such as the Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s recent speeches and their impact on presidential contender Barack Obama’s campaign or 15-year-old Miley Cyrus’s recent photo shoot. This, the media pundits will assure us, is what ordinary Americans want to know about. But is it all they want to know about?

The mainstream American press, complicit in enabling President George Bush in the run-up to the war, undoubtedly has buried the Iraq story as part of the “surge-is-working” recent public relations initiative conducted by President George Bush and Gen. David Petraeus. This accomplishes two things for the right-wing in this country: (1) It puts a positive spin on the worst foreign policy decision in at least a generation, if not more, giving cover to Republicans running for office this year, and (2) it means Bush does not have to actually make any difficult decisions about the continuing Iraq occupation before he leaves office.

But here are some facts you might not know: American military and Iraqi civilian causalities have skyrocketed recently. The military reported 50 American troop deaths last month, which was the highest amount since September. Meanwhile, Iraqi civilian deaths are at their highest in six months as well. American military deaths are now at 4,065. Nearly 30,00 soldiers have been wounded. Estimates of Iraqi civilian deaths range from 83,000 to more than 600,000.

The way in which the mainstream media frames and positions a story is critically important in how the public views its importance. The surge in deaths should be a major headline, but the story has been relegated to secondary status. The issue is a vitally significant one in an election year in which voters must decide between two vastly different views about the Iraq war. Both Democratic presidential candidates, Obama and Hillary Clinton, want to begin removing American troops if elected. They see the war as a mistake and believe it has long been an irreversible quaqmire. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee, John McCain, wants to continue the Bush administration’s strategies (or non-strategies) about the war.

The corporate media continues to enable the worst president in American history and his courtiers to manipulate the news cycle as he spreads quasi-fascist propaganda sanctioning a senseless war, torture of prisoners and the suspension of habeas corpus. This specific dynamic—Bush and the docile corporate media—has changed the American presidency and the press forever. One has to ask larger questions: How can democracy survive within this dynamic? Can independent media outlets correct this structural error?