July 4th Priorities

It's interesting to see how news organizations allocate their resources. On this July 4th, I wanted to see a current list of the troops killed in Iraq. Surely, I thought, I could rely on Fox News to provide such a list on this day. Unfortunately, it appears they've been busy with other things; as of today, their list of troops killed-in-action has not been updated in over three weeks, as you can see here.

It's not that the information is not available. An up-to-date list appears in many places, including the website of the DOD. Supposedly liberal CNN understands its importance; it maintains a current, accurate and well organized list here. CNN even makes an extra effort to include a photo of each soldier, which Fox does not.

To me, "supporting the troops" is not an empty mantra. It means giving them a defined, viable mission---and if the worst happens, to honor them in death. It's hard to honor the sacrifice of our troops without knowing their names. But we already knew that Fox has other priorities, didn't we? As a charter member of the insurgents-as-terrorists language creep club, Fox is an enabler of mission creep. And enablers of mission creep by definition do not support the troops.

If you're a student on summer break still looking for a job, you might want to contact Fox and volunteer to keep their KIA list updated. But first you might have to convince them that it's a job worth doing.