The Media Non-Blitz: a reporter explains why the mainstream press gives scant coverage to certain stories

From Protein Wisdom;

So, why hasn’t Michael Yon’s report on the al Qaeda massacre of women and children in Baqubah been picked up by the legacy media?

Well, if you can believe one reporter, the answer (that the mainstream press, too, has an agenda to push and protect, and certain stories, if given too much play, will weaken the master narrative) will come as little surprise to most readers here — just as it will come as little surprise when the admission itself is subsequently ridiculed and dismissed by many mainstream media apologists as the unattributed ramblings of some hack right-wing malcontent.

Still, it’s worth noting nevertheless:

Yon’s story doesn’t get attention because it is humiliating.

It is humiliating because it is obvious that we media – and our allies in the state department, the legal trade, the NGOs, the Democratic Party, the UN, etc., - can’t do squat about such determined use of force.

Our words, images, arguments and skills can’t stop the killing. Only the rough soldiers and their guns can solve the problem, and we won’t admit that fact because the admission would weaken our influence and our claim to social status.

So we pretend Yon’s massacre – and the North Korean killing fields, the Arab treatment of women, the Arab hatred of Israel, etc. - doesn’t exist, and instead focus our emotions and attention on the somewhat-bad domestic things that we can ‘fix’ with our DC-based allies. Things such as Abu Ghraib, wiretapping, etc. When we ‘fix’ them, then we get status, applause, power, new jobs, ego, etc.

Please don’t be surprised. We media are an interest group not much different from the automakers, the unions, and the farmers.