Media Studies 101: Dropping the Dead Donkey

All right, I give up. Are people really as stupid as they seem?

The latest case for the prosecution?

The hysterical hyping of the non-story about the draw down - oh, sorry, I mean WITHDRAWAL!!!!!!!!!!!!! - of British troops from southern Iraq.

It is a strange thing to see what I think must actually be quite intelligent people in the media say dumb things that simply run counter to the facts, but which rather represent the media pack's tendency to group-think and the projecting their own views on how they want things to be onto events.

The first thing you'll notice about this "story" is how it is being presented as breathtakingly new and unexpected.

This allows those reporters suffering from Bush Derangement by Proxy Syndrome to present their "gotcha Howard' headlines and commentary, all the while gloating about how the "little rodent" has been caught out by events and put on the back foot (to use an appropriate cricketing analogy).

Er, except, the reality is something very different.

No matter how many times Channel Nine's ridiculous buffoon Laurie Oakes says otherwise.

This is not the first time Great Britain has drawn down its forces in Iraq.

The current force level of 7,100 is some 2,000 or more less than the peak of 9,000+.

There will still be over 5,000 troops in Iraq after the draw-down.

So it isn't a withdrawal at all. Anybody saying otherwise is either a fool or a liar.

And there is absolutely nothing new to this story.

The intention of the British to reduce their commitment in southern Iraq as the forces of the democratically elected Iraqi government stand up and take responsibility for their own security has been their stated policy for a long time.

I'd have to say that knowing this is one of the things that just makes me sit back and wonder to myself "what the hell is all this about?"

There is nothing new here, no surprises, just the implementation of a long standing and clearly stated policy.

So yet again we see the media pack manufacturing a sensational story where none exists.

Why?

Because they want anything that happens to be pressed into an anti-Bush/Blair/Howard narrative and they refuse to let inconvenient details get in the way.

This is in fact political opinion dressed up as news reporting.

Anyway, avoid these second-rate hacks and opinion hucksters. At least give Mr Blair a fair and open-minded hearing - you can read his full statement to the House of Commons here.