Snow's Blame Game

APPARENTLY THE ONLY people who don't know that the war in Iraq is going well is the biased media. At least that's what Tony Snow has been saying on the morning shows. Snow toured the morning shows Sunday with this basic message: Bush doesn't make policy decisions based on polls (fair enough), and the only reason Americans appear to be overly impatient with the war is because of all the negative media coverage. Perhaps Snow didn't read the recent Wall Street Journal editorial suggesting that, in fact, the media may be underplaying how dire things are in Iraq.

Or maybe he didn't read the cable from the US embassy in Baghdad to the State Department (signed by Ambassador Khalilzad) in which it painted a pretty grim picture of what's going on right now. The cable was sent just prior to Bush's surprise visit last week.

But whatever the reason, Snow is pushing the idea that the media is to blame. Check out this comment on Fox News Sunday:

The thing is the way the war is being covered -- and we've seen it right now. We have two US servicemen -- and God bless them. We hope they're Okay. We're focusing on them and we forget that since Zarqawi was killed, hundreds of bad guys have been rounded up.

Or this from CBS's Face the Nation:

the fact that two American servicemen are missing -- that becomes the big story, rather than the fact that you've got almost 60,000 forces on the ground going after bad guys. We've apprehended hundreds of bad guys since Zarqawi died.

How dare the media focus on two young marines that are missing, and have since been found dead in the street. Perhaps Snow would prefer if the government controlled the news -- you know, so this kind of reckless journalism could be put in check.