TV Wraps Itself in the Flag and Sells the War

Columnist Frank Rich writes, "There's almost nothing in the war, it seems, that cannot be exploited as a network promo. ... When Victoria Clarke at the Pentagon says Saddam is responsible for 'decades and decades and decades of torture and oppression the likes of which I think the world has not ever seen before,' no one on Fox or MSNBC is going to gainsay her by bringing up Hitler and Stalin. To so much as suggest that the world may have seen thugs even more evil than Saddam is to engage in moral relativism -- which, in the prevailing Foxspeak of the moment, is itself tantamount to treason. In retrospect we can see that patriotism as a TV news marketing ploy was inevitable ... . ...the prewar joke, that this war would be the ultimate reality show, has come true."