Media oblivious to police attack on Iraq vets 17Oct2008

No matter what Iraq Veterans Against the War do, it seems they’re always invisible to the corporate media.

Whether it’s holding Winter Soldier hearings at which dozens of veterans testified to the atrocities they committed, re-enacting the occupation on the streets of American cities, or being nearly beaten and arrested by cops for peaceful protest outside the DNC, IVAW’s 1300-strong members and their actions have met with an all but total media blackout.   When they requested that Bob Schieffer of CBS let them submit two questions to the presidential candidates, they were ignored.  And when a group of vets showed up outside Hofstra University to protest, the police blocked and arrested them.  Nick Morgan, who served in Iraq for about one year, was trampled and bruised in the face by a cop on horseback (seen above).

A Google News search for the Wednesday’s IVAW protest yields zero results from the mainstream media.  Complete coverage at the Indypendent and Democracy Now, of course.  Why won’t the corporate media acknowledge the presence of anti-war veterans?  What do they have to do, beyond dogging politicians across the country, engaging in creative protest and getting beaten up, to catch the gaze of corporate journalists?

If they we were Plumbers Against the War, they might be getting the attention they deserve right now.  Google News finds over 8,000 stories, from the New York Times to the Wall Street Journal, for “Joe the Plumber.”  Because, you know, if a faltering candidate with no fresh ideas mentions a random plumber a bunch of times, it must be important.  I’m tempted to say that there’s no better illustration of corporate media disfunction than this one, but there are so many I can’t be sure.