Dubious Milestones

Sometimes (okay, most of the time), I hate the media. Last night, the United States achieved the "milestone" of 4,000 soldiers dead in Iraq. EVERY news station is producing this story as if Paris has stolen Helen again and we all need to buy stock in Haliburton before they send KBR to Troy. What is it with our media and numbers? The guy who died at 3,999 is probably no less important than the guy at 4,000. Come to think of it, the one who died at 3,728 really haunts me night to night.

This is what happens when a news cycle really has nothing to say, so arbitrary numbers are chosen as news stories themselves. It's like turning the camera on a stop sign and stating that it's important to look at this stop sign because people who get into accidents by ignoring stop signs are out of control. It's a stupid stop sign. 4,000 is a number, not a story. Not an event. Not the rationale behind why we should have 8 hours of news stories all about meta stories (covering the media's coverage of the war, which is what they're doing right now).

Did something new happen in Baghdad? No, not really. Is the war turning in our favor? No, not really. Is it getting worse? No, not really. In other words, THERE IS NO STORY HERE.

Sadly, I covered this same problem at 3,000 casualties. No one cared then either.

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