[Vision2020] Re: LMT reporting US losses

[roger hayes]

>

Ted, the media is suffering from the same mentality as the American  
public, cognitive dissonance. This means even though the truth is  
staring us in the face, we would prefer not to know, or see, what's  
really going on. As death, whether American, or Iraqi becomes all too  
common, we will relegate that news further from the forefront of our  
consciousness, and hence the front page of our papers.
For all of our patriotic chest thumping, the recent waves of  
indignation about the cartooning of Mohammed and the resulting claim  
that Islam is trying to take over the world, the deaths are for, and  
about, oil. We need it, and they have it. This is the truth people  
don't want to know. But even our corporate oil President in his State  
of the
Union Address said, "we are addicted to oil." I sense that he feels  
safe in at last stating the truth about the war. He knows we will hear  
truth, but we will do nothing about it.
Soon we will have to begin rating our SUVs and monster trucks in miles  
per human life rather than miles per gallon. Even that will be  
acceptable I fear.

Roger Hayes
Moscow


> All:
>
> I was amazed and dismayed to read the Friday, Feb. 3, 2006 edition of  
> the
> Lewiston Morning Tribune, given the choices made regarding what  
> deserves
> front page focus, and what does not.  Four articles dominated the front
> page:  one on wolves delisting, Bush seeking 120 billion more for wars,
> Orofino teenagers, and something about a Lapwai man and Pres-to-Logs...
>
> Then I was astonished to read on the left hand lower corner of page 3 a
> small article, with a tiny headline, notifying us that 5 more US  
> soldiers
> had died in combat in Iraq in the past week.
>
> I know that many Iraq war supporters think the US media focuses too  
> much on
> the negative news from Iraq, but does putting notice of the deaths in  
> the
> past week of 5 US soldiers, who gave their lives to defend us, deserve
> nothing more than a tiny article with a tiny headline in the left hand  
> lower
> corner of page 3?
>
> Have we become that callous to the horror of the war in Iraq, to the
> ultimate sacrifices of our soldiers when they die in combat, that
> Pres-to-Logs are a more important subject?
>
> Or did the Tribune make a decision that the deaths of US soldiers in  
> Iraq
> are not the proper subject to best sell their newspaper at this time?   
> Has
> coverage of the deaths of US soldiers in Iraq become so easily  
> accepted that
> they are not deemed newsworthy enough to be featured on the front page?
>
> Am I wrong to suggest something is amiss here in the Tribune's  
> coverage?
> What am I overlooking or overemphasizing?
>
> Ted Moffett
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