Watershed Vote in Iraq, Big Media Quiet

Watershed Vote in Iraq, Big Media Quiet

Posted on BattleBornNews.com Tuesday 13 December 2005

As we focus on the Christmas Holiday, a watershed event is about to occur in Iraq. The Iraqi people will be voting for the first time under their new constitution. This will be the first constitutionally elected government that Iraq has ever seen and other than Israel, the only one in the Middle East. The strange thing about this is that “Big Media” is surprisingly quiet. They seem to be actually waiting and seeing instead of jumping to early, biased, pessimistic conclusions.

A Constitutional Republic in Iraq is a huge victory for the United States and its allies in the war on terror. I have not heard as much of “Big Media” spreading the typical gloom and doom like they did in previous Iraqi voting periods. Maybe Big Media is starting to shy away from the literary beatings they have been taking from the blogosphere. I think that Big Media is still so “head-in-the-sand” about blogs and the effect blogs have, that they know they are being taken to task for being severely biased and regularly wrong but they continue to be taken by surprise. Often, the Big Media outlets are not upset about being wrong, they are much more upset about being CAUGHT being wrong.

Now even the most obviously biased news networks are passing the information that it is expected that upwards of 90% of the Iraqi population is expected to vote and that the atmosphere is positive about the election and the future. Big Media has been so consistent in their negative message that they have convinced large segments of America, the country known for optimism, that we are not winning the war and things are looking dim. Iraqis who have a first hand perspective on current events in their country are bursting with optimism. This is probably the first time many Iraqis have experienced polls where they are actually ASKED how they feel about something. Instead of being told what to think they are being asked. Saddam did not take polls to see how happy his people were.

I predict that the voting will go smoothly with a few terrorist disruptions as it did during the previous Iraqi votes. Predictably, Big Media will report heavily on the few attacks and not produce the headlines they SHOULD. Headlines should read, “Terrorist Resort to Carbombing as Last Ditch Effort Against Vote”, or “Bombings Ineffective in Influencing Vote.” We can “SHOULD” Big Media all day without having effect. We can HOPE big media will change for the better, but as we said in the Army, “Hope is not a meathod.” I think we are undergoing several paradigm shifts at the same time and one of them is that Blogs will have as big an impact on an individual’s ability to gather, control and distribute information as did the printing press with movable block type. Don’t hope Big Media changes, make it change by gathering information from source documents and alternate news outlets and hold Big Media accountable!