In truth, television news coverage is not unlike the old story of Benito Mussolini’s review of his pre-war air force. He would fly to Naples to look at the war planes lined on the tarmac. After dinner, he would fly north to Milan to review those forces. Upon his arrival, the aerodrome was a splendorous vision of shiny airplanes for Il Duce. Pilots merely flew the same planes north while their leader was having dinner. So it is with televised news. Despite the intricate stage sets, each network may only have two or three reporters who cover celebrity trials, wars, hurricanes and a Virgin Mary sighting with the same intensity–but only separately.
“The New York Times
July 30, 2006
Op-Ed Columnist
The Peculiar Disappearance of the War in Iraq
By FRANK RICH
AS America fell into the quagmire of Vietnam, the comedian Milton Berle joked that the fastest way to end the war would be to put it on the last-place network, ABC, where it was certain to be canceled. Berle’s gallows humor lives on in the quagmire in Iraq. Americans want this war canceled too, and first- and last-place networks alike are more than happy to oblige.”
Olease find the entire column here.