Mass media weapons of self-deception

GEOFF! Meeker asks:

Certain American networks are keen to play along, playing the ‘shock and awe’ video to its maximum, desensitizing effect. Is it any wonder Americans are killing each other?

Yesterday, nearly 200 people died in terrorist attacks in Iraq.

That's almost as many as in the Mumbai commuter train bombings last year or the Bali bombing in 2002, and more than the 2005 London tube bombings, the 2004 Madrid railway bombings, the 2002 theatre hostage-taking in Moscow, or the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

Yet, for many hours after the bombings yesterday in Baghdad, there were no links to the story on the main page of CNN and other major U.S. media websites. The ones that eventually appeared were placed well inside and below the fold, so to speak.

Yes, the attention of the U.S., and much of the world, has been caught up in a horrific domestic American act of mass violence these past several days.

But still, "desensitizing effect", indeed.