A Well-Kept Secret

The Washington Post does have a real media critic, and I'm not talking about the right-wing putz. While Getler lets the Post off rather easily for its past crimes on Iraq, he's not going to let the paper slide for its continued distorted reporting:

When Kerry did speak out on Thursday, citing a newly disclosed and pessimistic intelligence report, The Post -- wrongly and unfairly, I thought -- buried the story on Page A20.
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Another example of why I'm not optimistic occurred last Monday. The outgoing commander of Marine Corps forces in western Iraq told reporters from The Post, the Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times and CNN that he opposed the assault on militants in the volatile city of Fallujah in April and also disagreed with the subsequent order to halt the attack once underway. "When you order elements of a Marine division to attack a city, you really need to understand what the consequences of that are going to be and not perhaps vacillate in the middle of something like that," said Lt. Gen. James T. Conway.

Several Iraqi cities are controlled or dominated by insurgents, and the battle over Fallujah symbolizes the dilemma faced by U.S. forces, who could undoubtedly overrun the resistance, or at least displace it, in these cities. But they would also surely pay a big price in Iraq and the Arab world. It will be a long time, if ever, before Iraqis will be able to undertake such missions. The Globe put the story on Page One. The Los Angeles Times referred to it on Page One. The Post put it on Page A17 with a one-column headline.