The following is just below the lede of the p.1 NY Times story from Iraq this morning. Notice how it steers clear of saying anything judgmental about the act of mass murdering civilians. Notice how, instead, the slaughter is described as merely “dramatic” and from these killings no conclusions are drawn about the perpetrators but rather, it is argued, the bombings “severely challenged the American command” and its “claim” that it has been making progress.

“The bombing, in Musayyib, about 40 miles south of the capital, was the latest in an unrelenting string of dramatic suicide bombings that have killed scores of people and severely challenged the American command, which only a month ago claimed that military offensives had sharply undermined the ability of the insurgents to launch attacks and cut the number of suicide bombings in half.”

If Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has a communications director, is this not precisely the way he would hope his group’s terrorists attacks would be reported by the MSM?