Newsweek reports on news management from Iraq. Reporters are no longer allowed to visit hospitals or the morgue to get accurate casualty figures. Atrios reports that Central Command is suppressing the casualty count by reporting “killed” only rather than the conventional “killed, wounded, missing.” Menawhile, the idea that the press is some sort of enemy plot has so permeated the right wing that no actual information can penetrate.
Update And, as Tom Spencer points out based on this Washington Post account, news management doesn’t stop at the water’s edge: photographs of flag-draped coffins are also taboo, per orders from Washington. Moreover, the President is doing his bit to keep the public’s eye off the casualty count:
A White House spokesman said Bush has not attended any memorials or funerals for soldiers killed in action during his presidency
Not one?