Apparently, in the view of our corporate news editors and managers, it is important for Americans to fully witness the bloody horrors of war when that war is being fought by Russia, but we are to be carefully protected from seeing such things when they are being perpetrated by our own centurions. We aren’t even allowed to see the grievous injuries and death being suffered by our own troops.

More uncorroborated, unconfirmed, terrifying tales from the NY Times about Iran. Update: Juan Cole finds the story, even if true, to be very unpersuasive as a reason to be hostile towards Iran.

The Inky has always taken the easy road, and my earlier designation of their work as cowardly ("Profiles in Cowardice: The Philadelphia Inquirer's new 'right stuff' program," Z Magazine, July/August, 2001) has rarely been contradicted by their news or editorial page policy. In the case of the Israel-Palestinian conflict it is of course notorious that no politician in this country can now survive without genuflecting to Israel and denouncing the Palestinians, and the media has been equally cowed.