CNN Celebrates 2,000 Deaths In Iraq

CNN was in rare form yesterday. The news of 2,000 U.S. fatalities in Iraq was meet with a blitz of seemingly preplanned stories that--there is no other word for it--seemed to celebrate the death of 2,000 U.S. soldiers. Or perhaps more specifically, to celebrate another chance to push their agenda and attack President Bush.

The main story on CNN is filled with subheadlines such as "Journal chronicled fears" and snippets such as:

Jones, 45, had volunteered to deploy to fill a vacancy in the 48th Brigade. His jailer's wage didn't always cover the bills, and Jones hoped hazard pay from Iraq would help his family's financial struggles.

But no pay could compensate for these hazards. The June 26 explosion that jolted Kinlow left Jones with a scratched cornea. Then, a few weeks later, came Kinlow's death.

No mention was given to the accomplishments made while he was in Iraq.

Along the pushing the agenda lines, the results of two polls were released at the same time. The first was entitled, "Poll: Few doubt wrongdoing in CIA leak," found the surprising results that prepped with continuous stories about the leak by the media and no official information, people thought something bad had happened. Shocking. The second was even more contrived, stating "Poll: Bush would lose an election if held this year." Two things to note about the poll. One, Bush loses to a Democratic candidate, not John Kerry. So the results discount any of the negatives about John Kerry that caused people to vote for Republican instead of Democrat. Given the number of anti-Kerry votes that occurred in 2004, this fact alone makes the poll meaningless. But there is also this gem:

However, all the numbers are within the poll's sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points, so it's possible that the public's opinion has not changed at all.

Excellent. So the results of the biased poll are inconclusive, yet they are published right next to the headline and melodramatic story of the 2,000 death in Iraq. A coincidence, I'm sure.

Finally, the QuickVote of the day was "When the war in Iraq started, did you believe the U.S. would suffer so many casualties?" I guess gives everyone the opportunity to see that no only was Bush wrong, but we all knew he was wrong from the beginning.

It would be nice to see CNN (and the bulk of the rest of the media) show an ounce of professionalism. Given their recent behavior, I think it is safe to put your scales away as there is sadly no need to even check.