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January 19, 2005
In today's bombings . . .
Today in Baghdad, 26 people were killed and 21 were injured in 5 separate car bomb attacks.
What is unreported in most versions is that coalition troops repelled the attacks in every case, causing the attackers to detonate their bombs outside from their intended targets. From Central Command:
Despite loss of life, a spokesman with the 1st Cavalry Division said none of the suicide bombers hit their intended targets.Now, 26 people dead it seems would be enough to make the headlines so bad, that this small nugget of good news could certainly be inserted to show a silver lining of some kind . . .All of these car bombers were stopped by security forces before they could reach their intended targets, said Lt. Col. James Hutton, the divisions public affairs officer. While the any loss of life is tragic, it could have been a lot worse.
But of four of the major US dailies, only one makes mention of this tidbit.
See versions from:
The New York Times,
The AP (via the Washington Times),
The Washington Post.
Incredibly, only the LA Times carried the news that coalition troops fought off the attackers, thwarting the intended lethality of their plans. Perhaps this can be excused given that the silver lining is near the end of a short Central Command press release. Yet all four of the stories seem to quote it, as though someone who was involved in the production of the stories actually turned to Central Command for details. All four stories have this line:
Four vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices detonated in the Iraqi capital in the span of 90 minutes this morning. Initial reports indicate 26 people died in the blasts, with at least 21 more wounded.
The Times: "The American military reported that 26 people were killed and at least 21 were wounded . . ."
The Post: "The U.S. military said 26 people were killed in 90 minutes of morning rush-hour violence . . ."
The LA Times: "Four car bombs exploded within 90 minutes here today, killing at least 26 Iraqis and injuring 21 other people, the U.S. military said."
The AP: "The U.S. military put the death toll from the day's Baghdad bombings at 26, saying the number was based on initial reports at the scene. Iraqi officials gave a lower toll - 12 people killed in the bombings and one at the Kurdish office.
Sunni Muslim insurgents have threatened to disrupt the elections, and the five car bombings - four within a span of 90 minutes - underscored the grave threat facing Iraqis at this watershed in their history."
So, we can conclude that someone in each of these news organizations is reading Central Command press releases.
So here's what was not in today's headlines:
23 Iraqi Intelligence Soldiers Graduate
Commando Brigade Detains a Dozen in Night Raids
And the press chose to ignore one bad news story as well:
Two Iraqi Civilians Killed After Trying to Speed Through Military Patrol
Certainly 23 intelligence troops graduating doesn't merit top billing like a coordinated carbomb strike. Neither does the detention of a dozen suspects after a raid. But taken collectively, and over, say, three or four months worth of time, the cumulative effects of smaller positive stories -- of which Central Command releases several a day, right along with the big bad ones -- do in fact constitute news, though they must struggle to reach the horizon of those would deem them so.
Writing in 1961, in his book, "The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America," historian Daniel Boorstin noted that pseudo-events have the following four characteristics:
1. It is not spontaneous but comes about because someone has planned, planted or incited it . . .The car bombings were not pseudo-events, they were real. Real people died. but those who orchestrated them did so in the manner exactly prescribed by a careful reading of Boorstin's definition of how to make news.2. It is planted primarily (not always exclusively) for the immediate purpose of being reported or reproduced . . .
3. Its relation to the underlying reality of the situation is ambiguous . . .
4. Usually it is intended to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. [his example:] The hotels' thirtieth-anniversiary celebration, by saying that the hotel is a distinguished institution, actually makes it one.
UPDATE: "The Image" is now linked in the sidebar.
Posted by Chester at January 19, 2005 7:40 PM
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