Post-Dispatch's Mayer on Our Grand Ole Victory

This is all fine and good reportage, but check out the next doozy from Mayer:

The reason for this? I'd be willing to bet that the
correlation between the drop in violence, insurgent attacks, and U.S.
casualties in Iraq and a drop in news coverage is by no means
coincidental.

To support his claim, Mayer notes that "Havard-educated" blogger Richard Fernandez reached the same conclusion,
writing, "Written off as a morass rapidly descending into chaos, Iraq
is threatening to become a regular country."  Mayer cites Fernandez's
blog "The Belmont Club", but forgets to mention that "The Belmont Club"
is actually hosted by Pajamas Media, the right-wing news site founded
by the same guy who runs Little Green Footballs.

He then blathers on about the traditional right-wing talking point that the media never reports the good news from Iraq:  

Headlines like 'Roadside bomb attacks in Iraq decline by 90%", for example, don't make the front page or the nightly news.

The headline he's talking about is from this article,
which uses the brilliant methodology of comparing American deaths from
IEDs in May '07 to those in May '08 to get their results.
Unfortunately, there's no mention of the obvious problems with this
methodology:

 1.  May '08 is clearly an outlier.  April '08 had more than
twice as many deaths and June '08 already has more deaths.  Also, May
'07 had many more deaths than the months around it.

 2.  It equates "attacks" on Americans with fatalities.  There
might still be the same number of attacks with less fatalities, which
hardly would be a sign of Iraq being more stable.

 3.  By focusing exclusively on American forces, it ignores the
fact that roadside bombs often target Iraqi security forces. (see
below).  Considering that American forces are traveling on the roads
less since the surge began, this is a pretty significant omission.

So, in honor of Mayer's quasi-journalism, I give you, below the
fold, the recent news the media hasn't been reporting.  I'll leave it
up to you to decide if this suggests that "we are winning the war".

ashriver :: Post-Dispatch's Mayer on Our Grand Ole Victory in Iraq-updated

From McClatchy (via Juan Cole)...

Monday, June 23:

Baghdad

A roadside bomb targeted a National Police patrol in Waziriyah,
near the cotton wool plant intersection at 11.30 a.m. Monday, injuring
three policemen.

A roadside bomb targeted a US military convoy in Qahira, near the water reservoir at noon. No casualties were reported.

A roadside bomb targeted a US military convoy in Salahuddin
Square, Kathimiyah neighbourhood at around noon. No casualties were
reported.

A roadside bomb targeted a US military convoy in Adil neighbourhood at around 1 p.m. No casualties were reported.

Member of Local Council in Madain, 14 km to the southeast of
Baghdad opened fire on US military at around 1.30 p.m. Monday, killing
two , injuring 4. U.S. military confirmed the report.

Two unidentified bodies were found in Baghdad today; 1 in Hurriyah and one in al-Amin.

Diyala

Mortar rounds fell on a Sahwa headquarters in al-Atheim
district, 50 km to the north of Baquba at 8.30 p.m. Sunday, killing 10
members, injuring 24 others.

Nineveh

Gunmen opened fire on a checkpoint manned by Iraqi Police in New
Mosul, south Mosul killing one policeman and one civilian female,
severely injuring two civilians.

Sunday, June 22:

Baghdad

Police found three bodies throughout Baghdad. Two bodies were found in Fdheliyah and one body was found in Saidiyah.

Diyala

16 people including eight policemen were killed and 40 others
were injured when a female suicide bomber blew herself up among
policemen near Diyala governorate building in downtown Baquba city
around 12:30 p.m.

Nineveh

14 people were injured including four policemen when a suicide
car bomb attacked a police checkpoint in al Wihda neighborhood in
downtown Mosul city on Sunday afternoon.

Kirkuk

Three civilians including two women were killed and two other
civilians were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded nearby a passing
car on Rashad -Kirkuk Street southwest Kirkuk city north of Baghdad on
Sunday morning.

Four civilians were killed in a roadside bomb that targeted their vehicle in Fashka village west of Kirkuk on Sunday morning

Saturday, June 20:

Baghdad

- Around 1 p.m. a bomb planted in the car of the office manager of
the Iraqi minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research exploded
in Al Tobchi neighborhood injuring three including the minister's
office manager.

- Around 4 p.m. a bomb planted in a civilian car exploded in Al
Nidhal Street injuring two Iraqi employees of a local LG Company
branch.

- Around 5 p.m. a bomb planted in a police vehicle exploded in Al Andalus square injuring two policemen.

- Police found two dead bodies throughout Baghdad; one in Al Baladiyat, one in Mansour.

Diyala

- Police found the bodies of two brothers, Ali and Mohamed Zaid,
in Al Tahrir neighborhood in Baquba. The two brothers were members of
the awakening council, a U.S. backed Sunni militia, and were kidnapped
three days ago.

Kirkuk

- Around 8 a.m. a car exploded in central Kirkuk injuring the
two passengers in the car. Police said they suspect the two passengers
were planning a car bomb attack. The two suspects are under
investigation, police said.

and on. and on. and on.  This, apparently, is what a Grand Ole
Victory looks like.  Now Mayer is only an intern, so I don't want to be
too hard on him, but clearly this blog post is little more than the
adoption of right-wing spin job.  Let's hope his reporting gets better
in the future.

Update: I'm getting overrun by freepers over at the original blog
post, and I have to leave for a conference soon, so if anyone is
willing to pick up the torch please do.  Also, if you can't comment,
please at least go to the site and give the original posting one star under "rate this post"; it appears to be one of the freepers favorites!

http://blog.showmeprogress.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1223