Time: Nonstop awful

Klein in Time:
“The news from the Middle East – Iran, Iraq, Palestine – has been nonstop awful, and Bush is beginning to sound as airy and out of touch as Woodrow Wilson must have in 1919, when that President tried to sell the futile dream of a League of Nations. “
To the claim that the “news” from the Middle East has been “nonstop awful” — well, yes. Hard to argue. But that’s a rather different thing than the reality in the Middle East being non-stop awful, no?
See also, Victor Davis Hanson: “It is an odd war, because the side that I think is losing garners all the press, whether by blowing up the great golden dome of the Askariya shrine in Samarra, or blowing up an American each day. Yet we hear nothing of the other side that is ever so slowly, shrewdly undermining the enemy.”
Time, Mr. Klein, and the MSM in general are fond of engaging in this particular dance. Step one (“news” desk): ignore any signs of progress or good news from the Middle East; report in lurid detail all bad news. Step two (“editorial” desk): write pithy columns about how “the news” from the Middle East has been nothing but awful. Rinse. Repeat.
I can take some small pleasure in taunting Time, however, because they’ve obviously invested this week’s issue in the concept that the mosque bombing last week is starting a civil war. As they explain breathlessly in their press release:
“AN EYE FOR AN EYE TIME’s cover story this week, “Breaking Point,” explores the roots of the murderous rage in Iraq following the bombing of the al-Askari shrine and looks at why the U.S. may be powerless to stop it.”
But of course, a civil war is exactly what we’re not seeing, based on reports of the past few days. Captain Ed points out that even Moqtada al-Sadr, of all people, is encouraging calm and helping to keep the peace. And Omar at Iraq the Model notes that initial reports of the violence were dramatically overstated.
At times like these, it really sucks to be a weekly, doesn’t it? Faster, please…
Update: It’s murderous rage, I tell you, all of it!