Amy Goodman loves to play, as Ava and C.I. have long noted, Last Journalist Standing. Catch one of her self-praise sessions across the country and she'll tell you all about bad Judith Miller, The New York Times and Iraq and she'll toot her own horn about how she took the Iraq War seriously.
Seriously?
Seriously requires providing the time. Goody Liar rarely does.
Last week, she offered five hours of programming. Not one segment was devoted to Iraq. But in headlines, when she had a minute, she might mention the six-year-old, illegal and ongoing war which has claimed the lives of over 1 million Iraqis.
Monday Iraq fared best. Mainly because Amy loves to hate Christians -- seriously, this woman has some issues that need to be addressed. And to be as specific as possible, she hates White Christians -- be they Anglo White or Latino White, she hates them.
The Nation magazine reports the Obama administration has extended a contract with the company formerly known as Blackwater for more than $20 million for "security services" in Iraq. Since President Barack Obama took office in January, the State Department has contracted with Blackwater for more than $174 million in "security services" alone in Iraq and Afghanistan and tens of millions more in "aviation services." The latest contract was extended just days before two former Blackwater employees alleged in sworn statements filed in federal court that the company's owner, Erik Prince, views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe.
That's how the above ended up as the fifth headline of the day. The chance to play angry mob venting at Christians was too much for Amy to resist. So that came in at number five and this was the tenth headline on Monday:
In Iraq, at least forty people have died and another 200 were injured in a series of bomb blasts earlier today. In the deadliest incident, two truck bombs exploded in a Shia village near the northern city of Mosul, killing at least twenty-three people and injuring around 130. Thirty-five houses were leveled in the blasts.
40 people died. Didn't lead with it, didn't even make it the lead headline. It was number ten. Followed by:
Iraqi authorities have arrested a British contractor accused of murdering two colleagues in the Green Zone in Baghdad. The suspected gunman, Daniel Fitzsimons, could be the first Westerner to face an Iraqi trial on murder charges since a security pact lifted the immunity that had been enjoyed by foreign contractors for most of the war.
Monday was the best Iraq ever did in headlines and, as already noted, Iraq got no segments. In headlines, Iraq either remained unmentioned or buried all week long.
Tuesday Goody had nothing on Iraq. Wednesday, Iraq made it into one sentence when 9 peace activists were arrested: " The activists had completed a three-day walk to protest the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan and the US nuclear stockpile on the sixty-fourth anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. "
Thursday Goody offered a whopping two sentences: "In Iraq, at least eighteen Iraqis were killed in nationwide violence on Wednesday. Another thirty-one were wounded." If she'd grasped that a man in another headline was an Iraq War veteran and identified him as such, Goody could have had three sentences.
Friday Goody served up two more sentences, "In Iraq, at least thirty Iraqis were killed in nationwide violence Thursday. Another fifty-six people were wounded."
In all Goody gave Iraq 283 words last week, 217 of those on Monday. After Monday, Good's serious concern translated into 66 words.
By way of comparison, Free Speech Radio News is a half-hour radio program airing Monday through Friday. In five hours, Democracy Now! could only offer 283 words on Iraq last week. In two-and-a-half hours, FSRN offered actual reports on Iraq.
In fact, just three of them -- Friday's report on journalists protesting in Iraq, Wednesday's report on the War Time Commission's hearings on contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan (click here for a transcript of that report) resulted in over 1,000 words. That wasn't all FSRN offered.
Africa Jones reported Friday on Iraq and Afghanistan veterans fighting in court for mental health care. And there was also Monday's report about the assault on Camp Ashraf, Tanya Snyder's report is over 950 words. (Transcribed this edition here.)
It's really amazing how damn little Amy Goodman had to 'spare' for Iraq. And when you put it into context, it becomes shameful.