What's going on seems pretty self-evident. Bush may not be the brightest bulb on the tree in that he has difficulty formulating complete sentences, but I think he's smarter than we tend to give him credit for. If not, then other members of the cabal such as Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Rice, and Rove certainly are. They know full well that reports of body counts and pictures in the media of body bags and coffins coming back from Vietnam had a lot to do with spurring the anti-war movement in the Sixties. They're not about to let that happen this time. That's why the hissy-fit over the recent photo and the firing of the woman who took it and released it to the press.

I don't think the Bush administration had anything to do with the Sinclair Broadcast Group deep-sixing this particular showing of Nightline. I don't know anything about SBG. They aren't extant in my neck of the woods. But from this action, I tend to think that the SBG management is hard-charging right-wing and fully aware of the role media played in triggering the Sixties protests. This is a case of purposeful self-censorship.

The contrast between what is loosely called the "liberal media" and some of the main-stream and right-wing media is interesting. Called the "liberal media," because they broadcast programs such as NOW with Bill Moyers and Frontline—and, surprisingly enough 60 Minutes from time to time—PBS and some few others broadcast programs that feature stories about things that, as a member of a hopefully "informed electorate," you need to know. In the main-stream media, much of what passes as news doesn't qualify as news at all; it's "infotainment." While people are getting killed in Iraq, they devote hour after hour of air time to trivia, such as Janet Jackson flashing a boob for three-quarters of a second. They avoid anything that might make the government or their sponsors angry by not reporting stories that an informed electorate needs to know if they are really going to be an informed electorate.

On NOW with Bill Moyers this past Friday, Moyers interviewed Bob Edwards, who is moving from NPR Morning Edition anchor to special correspondent. Edwards had several good comments about what does and does not constitute news. One of the essential requirements is that a reporter (and his editor) have the guts to stick his neck out when he knows he's going to take a lot of heat for it. Edwards said that a really good newsman probably has few friends. Or you would certainly judge how good he is by looking at the friends he does have.

Sinclair either has no guts or they have an ax to grind. Probably the latter.

Don Firth