October Surprises

Just about one week left before the mid-term elections and everyone's favorite newspaper, the NY Times, has decided to print on page one a collage of photos from soldiers' funerals in Arlington National Cemetery. Just before this, Newsweek elected to print emails from a soldier recently killed in Iraq - emails that criticize the Bush administration and look bleakly on the future of the Iraqi military.

There can be no doubt that these "stories" are intended to be October surprises. The media is now in a full-court press to remove the Republicans from congressional leadership. It's clear that they haven't published photos of soldiers' funerals before, nor reported on a single email among the hundreds of thousands that show the soldiers' support for and belief in the war. Actually, it's laughable at this point to attempt to explain away these stories as anything but a vein attempt at the media to influence the political beliefs of the American people.

Of course, the American people are not necessarily buying it. With new reports that newspaper circulation is still in a nose-dive, Americans are looking to alternative sources for non-biased (or at least not liberally-biased) news. Were fed up with the fabrications, the "anonymous sources" and the lack of the media's ability to choose sides. One commenter for the Newsweek article wrote:

Is he one of the fine Americans that CNN gleefully showed getting killed by snipers? To all those in harm's way - there are plenty back here that pray for you every day and want you to win, although you won't find them on the TV or in "news."

And that's the story that no one is reporting.