[andyfox]

"But every TV network has endlessly shown photos of the humiliation of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. troops at Abu Ghraib. Why?

'Because most [journalists] want Bush to lose,' says AEI scholar Michael Ledeen, who helped host the screening of the Saddam video."

-Has Ledeen taken a survey? How would he know this? Isn't it more logical to assume that, since it was common knowledge that Hussein was a thug, even during the years he was our friend (when there were also no pictures and very little reporting about it), that it's more newsworthy when our country acts in a bad way?

"We highlight U.S. prisoner abuse because the photos aren't too offensive to show."

-This also makes more sense as an explanation of why the U.S. prisoner abuse photos are shown and the Saddam torture photos are not.

We've seen the "blame the media first" explanation for U.S. government failures time and time again before. (Usually it's the Democrats that do this, witness Kennedy and Johnson's efforts to stifle the media during Vietnam,
Carter's blaming a national "malaise" for his ineffective policies, and Mrs. Clinton's allegations of a vast conspriacy against her and her husband.) So I guess we shouldn't be surprised.