Entered into the database on Wednesday, December 28th, 2005 @ 20:56:16 MST
...demonstrating against election fraud. Thousands
of people have demonstrated on multiple days, in multiple cities in Iraq,
against what they claim was election fraud in the recent Iraqi election. The
demonstrations have received brief coverage on TV news, since they provide a
certain "visual" that's attractive to TV, and passing mention in print,
but no serious evaluation of the merits of the claims. There has, of coure,
been lots of discussion about the actual results, and the consequences of those
results for Iraq and the United States, but little or none about the election
itself and the charges of fraud. Now imagine the same thing happened after the recent elections in Bolivia or
Venezuela. The story would be at the top of the news, in heavy rotation on the
cable channels, the subject of all the pundits on the talking heads shows, daily
press releases from the U.S. government, and so on, all designed to make sure
that the entire American public was aware that the elections were illegitimate
(and, implicitly, that if the U.S. decided to invade those countries, it would
be entirely justified since they are ruled by people who will stop at nothing
to stay in power, even stealing elections, and they clearly need to have democracy
"brought" to them at the point of American guns). Stolen elections in the United States? Let's not even go there. The press certainly
won't. 