SPIN: Anti war news reporting -- news or propaganda?

Can anyone explain to me why the major American news establishment is so determined to promote Mrs. Sheehan into a counterpoint to the President of the United States -- other than a deep trench of philosophic bias against the incumbent? Even given the well documented liberal slant of the majority of the news media, this is a remarkable alliance. Mrs. Sheehan is a minor story on the legitimate scale of newsworthiness, hoisted to prominence by editorial decree. The news rooms of the elitist press are not reporting Mrs. Sheehan, they are promoting her.

Even with such promotional support, she lives each day as proof of her minor league status. The attempt at self proving prophesy – that Mrs. Sheehan is a catalyst for a growing anti-war movement – is evidentially not working. Her activities attract only a hand full of fellow travelers – hardly the longed for fulfillment of the prophesy.

Mrs. Sheehan is the personification for a small band of anti-social misfits determined to spread their self hatred to the greater public under the ruse of a noble cause. They are the extremist edge of that portion of the population that abhors the war. I do not brand all, or even most, who intellectually and rationally oppose U.S. policy – or even disdain Bush – as misfits. There is ample room for honest disagreement and rational discourse. It is just that the Sheehan contingent is the dregs of the larger opinionate. As the strident subculture’s icon, she is a sham and a shame.

One can proffer, without fear of refutation, that the extremist/media propaganda combine works to undermine our military policies, and therefore emboldens our enemies. It encourages them to recruit more aggressively and fight more viciously in the belief that eventually American resolve to defeat terrorism will evaporate.

These protesters believe that immediate withdrawal will spare future American lives. Though not true, this over publicized anti-war rhetoric will have its impact and, in fact, cause the deaths of more soldiers and civilians at the hands of a more determined and optimistic adversary.

There is no reason to believe that surrender to the maniacal factions will create stability or peace, as these misguided dreamers seem to think. In fact, the argument and history weigh heavily to the likelihood that pacifism and appeasement will only create more terrorism. This world wide battle is NOT a response to U.S. military action. Ours is the response of an unrelenting effort by fanatical extremists to destroy the infidels wherever WE exist --- man woman and child.

But how is it that so much of the national news media can be so tittled by the prospect of U.S. defeat and humiliation, and the victory of truly evil people, so as to become the public relations arm of the international murders, and their witless and unwitting allies in America? How is it that Mrs. Sheehan chooses not to direct her venomous wrath at the very people who compelled her son to volunteer for dangerous, but noble, duty? Why is it she chooses to point the finger at the person she accuses as a symbolic killer, while aiding and abetting the very people who really killed Casey Sheehan?