Still Invested in Failure

SWJ's Dave Dillege writing in The Washington Times

The media's coverage of two recent events — the release of the new National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iraq and Sen. John Warner's call for a symbolic reduction of troops by Christmas — serves to illustrate the perverse symbiosis between defeatist politicians and a news media that is heavily invested in an American failure in Iraq. Read carefully, the updated NIE provides some ammunition for both supporters and opponents of the war, presenting dour predictions about the level of violence in Iraq and the ability of the Iraqi government to achieve national-level political reconciliation, but also pointing out that "measurable" security improvements have been made in Iraq since January and will expand modestly in the next 12 months with continued pressure on the insurgents.

Dillege is spot on, of course. A freshman journalism student conducting his first textual analysis can find numerous examples of this investment in any of the day's "straight" news stories.

For example, in a "straight" news story today from Agence France Presse:

The dissident views now being expressed by prominent Republican figures like Warner have piled pressure on the Bush administration for a change of course in Iraq as the mid-September report looms.

Recall that earlier this summer, the lock-step dailies were remarking on the coming "Republican Revolt" over Mr. Bush's intransigence over policy in Iraq. A parade of Republicans were supposed to be bolting from the President and joining the anti-war Democrats.

Is this the Revolt they were predicting? If the "pressure" on Mr. Bush consists of rhetoric from a retiring Senator, a newly elected Phrench President and two partisan Democrats, then the revolutionaries seem to have surrendered without shooting much of a wad.