January 30, 2005

Calling Fouls

Back in my high school basketball days one of the teams one county over that we would play in league would foul on ever play. Some were light, some were heavy, but every shot, every time the ball was brought up the court a foul could be called. At a certain point the refs would just stop calling every foul and would start saving the whistle for "big" fouls. Not just bumping the shooter but real hard "hey, they arrest people for that in some States" fouls. Even I, a bench-riding intellectual, would end up with bruises in most games. Their players would hardly ever foul out. Our coach called it "desensitizing the refs."

Which brings me to coverage of the Iraq election. By the latest count, 44 people have been killed on election day despite a total lockdown of the country and 150,000 U.S. troops on the ground. And yet the election is widely being called a success in the media and not just on Fox. Name me another country in the world where 44 dead on election day would be considered a success. The 'refs' in this case, the media, have been desensitized to the violence. This is just "normal day Iraqi violence." Do you realize how bad that is? How many Iraqis have to die in a day for the media to call a foul?

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