Getting the Narrative Right While Ignoring the Story

Lately the Beauchamp affair has exposed the lengths that the leftist media will go to, to paint a particular picture about the war in Iraq. The phrase that was coined lately is, “Getting the Narrative Right, but the Facts Wrong” and it applies to pretty much all that comes out of the media establishment concerning Iraq, political correctness, global warming and any other cause de jour.

Today the big news out of Iraq is the crash of an Army Blackhawk helicopter while on a night mission killing all 14 personnel on board and once again we find the news media and especially the Associated Press getting the narrative right but getting the facts jumbled with their desire to paint Iraq as a lost cause.

Let’s go to the stories and see how good of a job they do supporting the narrative for the media left:

Megan Greenwell of the Washington Post writes in her article:

14 U.S. Troops Die in Helicopter Crash in Iraq Elsewhere, Suicide Bomb at Police Station in Northern Iraq Kills 20 BAGHDAD, Aug. 22 -- A U.S. Army helicopter crashed north of Baghdad early Wednesday morning, killing all 14 soldiers onboard, the military said.

Meanwhile, a suicide truck bomber in the northern city of Baiji killed at least 20 people at a police station Wednesday morning, police said.

A statement from the U.S. military said initial evidence indicates the UH-60 Black Hawk experienced mechanical failure and did not come under enemy fire. However, the cause of the crash is under investigation, the military said.

Wow, she didn’t waste any time did she? Right there, in the headline she turned around the tragic crash into an opportunity to bash the admin on Iraq.

Now let’s go to the “Conservative” paper for Washington the Washington Times who decides to post the story filed by Hamid Ahmed of the Associated Press. Their headline is more accurate, but it doesn’t take Ahmed long to push the “party line”:

Crash kills 14 U.S. soldiers - BAGHDAD (AP) – A Black Hawk helicopter crashed today in northern Iraq, killing all 14 U.S. soldiers aboard, the military said. It is the deadliest crash since January 2005.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, meanwhile, lashed out at American criticism a day after President Bush expressed frustration with the Iraqi government's inability to bridge political divisions.

"No one has the right to place timetables on the Iraq government. It was elected by its people," the Shiite leader said at a news conference in Damascus at the end of a three-day visit to Syria.

Amazingly an earlier version of the story at the Times made no mention of al-Maliki’s statements and read as follows:

A U.S. Army helicopter crashed north of Baghdad early Wednesday morning, killing all 14 soldiers onboard, the military said. A statement from the U.S. military said initial evidence indicates the UH-60 Blackhawk experienced mechanical failure and that it did not come under enemy fire. However, the cause of the crash is under investigation, the military said.

What would prompt the Washington Times of all papers to run an updated version of the story that is so blatantly biased? It makes no sense to this correspondent.

Now off to New York, here is what the Damien Cave of the New York Times had to say:

14 U.S. Soldiers Dead in Copter Crash in Iraq - BAGHDAD, Aug. 22 — Fourteen American soldiers died when their helicopter crashed in northern Iraq today, the military said, as Iraq’s prime minister threatened to “find friends elsewhere” if the Americans withdrew support for his administration.

Military officials said mechanical failure appeared to bring down the Blackhawk UH-60, which crashed during an operation overnight while traveling with a second helicopter. Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a military spokesman in Iraq, said the incident was being investigated.

Whew another one that feels the need to throw in al-Maliki’s statements in there. What in God’s name do his statements have to do with the death of 14 US Army Soldiers? Nothing they are there simply to frame the context of the story, Iraq is a failure and its all George W. Bush’s fault.

Even the Washington Examiner falls into the trap of advancing the narrative by printing the entire 36 paragraph story as written by Hamid Ahmed, of the AP. In fact, Mr. Hamid’s story is so biased against US involvement in Iraq that only 5 paragraphs deals with the crash itself, the other 31 are reserved for al-Maliki’s remarks and the so called failure of Iraq for US Forces.

Why the need for the media to turn this into another anti-war, anti-admin push? Are they completely heartless or do they truly only pay lip service to the brave men and women serving our country?

When we should be mourning and preparing stories for the country on the heroism of these men and women who have been lost, they are instead, using their deaths as another vehicle to push their meme that all is lost in Iraq, when in reality, all is not lost. Successes are continuing and Iraqi’s are stepping up to defend their own country against al Qaeda in Iraq and other insurgent groups that are only interested in creating the air of chaos and hopelessness. An air that the media left have fallen victim to and willingly promote with their negative stories. When the media outlets complain that they are incorrectly painted as leftist supporting shills but then every newspaper in the country prints almost exactly the same story, word for word and tangent for tangent it does more than make one wonder.

[Update] Commentor Dave notes that its even worse on the ABC site: Wow! Even I can't believe that one, thankfully he has a screen shot to prove it.

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Dawn Patrol from Mudville Gazette