The media doesn't like covering the good news coming from Iraq. McClatchy has already declared that violence is news but a drop in violence is not news. But it's not just McClatchy: the mainstream media is losing interest in covering the Iraq War as the situation there improves.
That being the case, how will we know when the US has won the war?
Simple: You'll know the US has won when McClatchy starts downsizing their Baghdad bureau.
The movement of stories away from military successes is well underway. Earlier this week McClatchy covered the story of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugees in Syria who face a bleak winter. Yesterday McClatchy's web site carried a story about bureaucratic problems and possible kickbacks with the contstruction of the US embassy building in Baghdad. (Sheesh: beyond McClatchy's newsroom, is there a demand for these kind of stories?) It's just a matter of time before McClatchy starts moving staff out of Baghdad.
So don't expect McClatchy or the LA Times to inform their readers when the US has won. Just wait til the news outlets start downsizing their Baghdad bureaus. That's when you'll know the victory is official.
