The Problem with Good News Republicans

The Problem with Good News Republicans

I
am continually dismayed by the attempt of Republican rank-and-file to
turn the news from Iraq into an indictment of the media. They claim
that the news from Iraq doesn't represent the real progress (“good
news”) that is being made in the country. They think that a focus on
bad news is a plot by the liberal media to undermine the moral cohesion
of the US re: the war in Iraq.

This is
ass
backwards. The peripheral “good news” we get from Iraq doesn't reflect
the major trend lines in the country. A new school (etc.) doesn't have
any major impact on the revival of Iraq from its status as a failed
state (in any time periods that matter). Security and critical
infrastructure do (this should not be in dispute). The news we get is
focused primarily on security and it is bad. It therefore reflects what
we need to know about the country.

An attack on the media in this will likely perpetuate the
distraction of the US from those factors that matter in Iraq. It clouds
our ability to process factual information (since all bad news is now
suspect). This hurts our ability to succeed because it creates a group
of people that are non-responsive to criticism that may improve efforts
in Iraq.

Ultimately, it divides us into non-cooperative centers of
gravity. This will spill-over into areas beyond the war and may over
the longer term make the US impossible to govern.  [John Robb's Weblog]

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