Wednesday, April 02, 2003

Over-Covered

The play-by-play coverage of the war; the instantaneous analysis of every detail -- provides a myopic view of the war. At first, it was "Gee whizz, look how fast we're moving!" Then about a week ago, it was "Oh my God, the resistance is fierce!" when we suffered a few casualties and mishaps. It quickly went from that to "hey, it was a bad plan, we are ill-prepared". Now with a rescue and the destruction of the Baghdad Republican Guard division and a quick stab toward Baghdad, it's all "Gee whizz" again.

Under-Covered We haven't seen what's been going on on the other side except for some pictures of distant explosions and the close-up pictures of death and destruction that the Iraqi regime and Arab press want people to see.

If we heard up front the damage being inflicted on the opposition with half the scrutiny we're seeng on the coalition side, maybe this roller-coaster would be a bit more balanced.