The glass of propaganda is half-full

By Todd Stadler · Wednesday, March 1, 2006 12:38am

First, I've really been trying not to write any political entries. There are more than enough political blogs out there to waste everyone's time, and I don't need to add to the opinion-spewing.

So why this entry? I'll tell you why: it was an opportunity for Photoshopped cheap shots. I mean, come on.

That said, the bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra, Iraq stood out amid the normal bad Iraq news as something rather ominous. Lots of people seem to think it could be the thing that incites a full-blown civil war.

So it was with some surprise that I saw that the Fox News coverage of the bombing included the caption "All-Out Civil War in Iraq: Could It Be a Good Thing?", as well as the video still below.

To be fair, I don't know the context of that caption — all I have to go on are the video stills. On the one hand, it could be that Fox News is taking a pro-Bush position. But on the other hand, maybe they're simply taking an anti-Arab stand. Hard to say.

So I decided to look back at how Fox News covered other major tragedies of the past to see if it would help me understand where they're coming from. Luckily, I have a library of video stills from Fox News going way back.

Here's one from a few years ago:

And here's another one I found from the 70s:

And here's a still of one of the first Fox News broadcasts ever:

I jest, of course. But really, if imminent civil war in Iraq can make Fox dream up a caption like the one (way) above, causing me to Photoshop together whatever images I can Google for in a couple of hours, and thereby amusing you ... well don't we all have to admit that there is an upside to said civil war?

And I bet that, somewhere in Iraq, a lot of Iraqis are agreeing.