{"id":146552,"date":"2019-11-04T12:01:43","date_gmt":"2019-11-04T12:01:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=146552"},"modified":"2019-11-01T09:23:57","modified_gmt":"2019-11-01T09:23:57","slug":"baghdadi-story-reveals-divided-and-broken-news-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2019\/11\/baghdadi-story-reveals-divided-and-broken-news-media\/","title":{"rendered":"Baghdadi Story Reveals Divided–and Broken–News Media"},"content":{"rendered":"

If You Have Two Sets of News Media, You Have None<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

President Donald Trump speaks in the Diplomatic Room of the White House in Washington, announcing that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the shadowy leader of the Islamic State group, is dead after being targeted by a U.S. military raid in Syria.
Manuel Balce Ceneta\/AP\/Shutterstock<\/p><\/div>\n

28 Oct 2019 – <\/em>Two sets of headlines over the weekend described the suicide of ISIS<\/a> leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.<\/p>\n

From the <\/a>Washington Post<\/a><\/em> Sunday morning:<\/p>\n

Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, Austere Religious Scholar at Helm of Islamic State, Dies At 48<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Post <\/em>has since rewritten that, though the description of an \u201caustere religious scholar with wire-rimmed glasses<\/a>\u201d remains in the lead paragraph.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the headline on Foxnews.com<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Al-Baghdadi Kill: How the Daring Military Operation Went Down<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Post <\/em>headline would fit a quiet academic who died in his sleep, not a genocidal jihadist leader. The Fox <\/em>headline is less nuts, but still not quite right: al-Baghdadi wasn\u2019t killed but reportedly committed suicide, while pursued by American \u201cmilitary dogs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Donald Trump<\/a> was correct when he tweeted Saturday night that something \u201cbig\u201d had happened<\/a>, but from there, America received two almost completely different versions of the story of al-Baghdadi\u2019s pursuit and suicide. It was a vivid demonstration of how dysfunctional the modern news landscape has become.<\/p>\n

When important events take place now, commercial news outlets instantly slice up the facts and commoditize them for consumption by their respective political demographics. We always had this process, to some degree, but it no longer takes days to sift into the op-ed pages.<\/p>\n

Now news is packaged for Republicans or Democrats on the first reporting pass. Moreover, it\u2019s no longer true that Fox is more blatant about its slant than the Democrat-friendly press, which in the Trump years has become a bullhorn of caricatured bellyaching in the same way Fox was in the Clinton years.<\/p>\n

The Trump version of the Baghdadi story was a predictable heroic cartoon. The Obama administration at least had the decency to seek out a decent director and wait a year or so<\/a> before the heroic Zero Dark Thirty <\/em>bin-Laden-killing epic<\/a> was released. Trump decided the skip the Hollywood negotiations<\/a> and deliver the boffo movie lines upfront.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe died like a dog, he died like a coward,\u201d Trump said<\/a>, saying al-Baghdadi died \u201cwhimpering and crying.\u201d Al-Baghdadi, Trump said, was the \u201cbiggest ever<\/a>\u201d terror villain, even bigger than bin Laden, because he \u201cbuilt a caliphate.\u201d He even praised the \u201cbeautiful dog, talented dog<\/a>\u201d that chased al-Baghdadi into a tunnel. The White House released photos of Trump and advisers watching the assault<\/a>, an experience Trump described as being like \u201cyou were watching a movie.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conservative media<\/a> immediately emphasized the political benefit of the raid to Trump, as in the Fox headline, \u201cAl-Baghdadi takedown catches Dems flat-footed, blunts criticism of Trump\u2019s Syria pullback<\/a>.\u201d There was also mockery of liberal culture-war targets like Saturday Night Live, <\/em>which ran an ill-timed gag this weekend. \u201cSNL mocks Trump for \u2018bringing jobs back to ISIS\u2019 amid operation targeting Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in Syria<\/a>,\u201d read the Foxnews.com headline.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in what increasingly feels like a monolithic bloc of anti-Trump media at the New York Times, Washington Post, <\/em>CNN, MSNBC, etc., the Baghdadi headlines were a remarkable collection of angst-ridden talking points. Even if you\u2019re not the kind of person who can ever celebrate a violent helicopter assault that results in the deaths of children<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 I count myself in that number \u2013 the difference in how this story was covered compared to analogous stories about bin Laden<\/a> or Abu Musab al-Zarqawi<\/a> was striking. Apparently, the salient facts about the death of al-Baghdadi included:<\/p>\n