I agree with you to a point. It would be equally interesting to see if the MSM could get through it without painting this incident as something it's not.
It's not a reason to attack Bush instead of the terrorists that carried out the attack.
It's not the tale of an American hero suffering for a cause.
It's just another story about just another convoy being attacked. Why is this one special just because a reporter was along for the ride? Why doesn't Joe Snuffy get the same attention when his convoy is attacked while he's out training Iraqi police or army guys?
I won't make veiled insinuations. I'll make bold-faced accusations. This story is about the press making a martyr out of one of their own at the expense of heroes who are trying to make things better. This story is being used to highlight the bad aspects of what's going on in Iraq while ignoring the fact that the period since the last election has actually had fewer than average casualties since we kicked Saddam out.
The MSM has no business making this war about them, but that's what they're doing.
I haven't seen any reporters attacking Bush about this.
And I see no reason for us to act like fools just because the press does.
I thought we were better than that.
In the movie BROADCAST NEWS one of the characters says to another broadcaster, "always remember, the news is always about us."
It's been that way since the sixties. But that's over now.
Long live the internet!
To be fair to "the media" when the networks do cover specific incidents such as IED attacks in ways that highlight the sacrifice of individual or units they are often attacked for "only reporting the negatives" - to some extent from their perspective it's a "dammed if you do dammed if you don't" situation.
Myself, I'm pleased that a major network anchor actually got off his butt, out of the studio, out of the Green zone, and put himself at the same kind of risks that US soldiers experience every day - if we want more accurate reporting of what's happening in Iraq, that one way we are going to get it. And I also note that he was taking risks that at lot of elected and unelected US officials who have visited Iraq feel are too great, or that they are too important, to take.
This guy put himself in harm's way to get the story... now lets see if if we will be seeing "first-person" accounts of the superb job the US military did of evacuating and treating the wounded from this attack.