THE PRESS: BLOWING IT AGAIN

Let’s take a time out from the media’s “for-your-entertainment-Obama-‘bitter’-fest” to focus on something a little more substantive ...

Dick Cavett (yes, that Dick Cavett) takes a look at how the use of words can shift attention from the ineptitude that surrounds the war in Iraq. But he also takes the time tell us how uncomfortable Iraqi Ambassador Ryan Crocker is covering for the Bush administration's ineptitude during his congressional testimony:

… Back to poor Crocker. His brows are knitted. And he has a perpetually alarmed expression, as if, perhaps, he feels something crawling up his leg.

Could it be he is being overtaken by the thought that an honorable career has been besmirched by his obediently doing the dirty work of the tinpot Genghis Khan of Crawford, Texas? The one whose foolish military misadventure seems to increasingly resemble that of Gen. George Armstrong Custer at Little Bighorn?

Not an apt comparison, I admit.

Custer sent only 258 soldiers to their deaths.

If the media wants to focus on elitism and how words can do real damage, Barack Obama is not the central front in their war on linguistic error(s). There are other real stories. Cavett’s article does a pretty good job of telling us why General Petraeus and Amb. Crocker – rather than Barack Obama – should be at the center of the media’s universe.

- Mark