Power Line: Early returns

January 30, 2005

Early returns

I've been watching the Iraqi election coverage on Fox. After two hours, the story seemed to (a) excellent turnout and (b) plenty of explosions. In one sense it sounded like business as usual -- Iraqis going about their business amidst the violence. But this time, crucially, the business is voting. Amazing.

By the way, this has got to be Geraldo Rivera's finest hour. Wearing an ear-to-ear grin, his face glowing, he compared this event to the fall of the Berlin wall and the voting rights movement in the South. I think he used the word heart-warming three times in a five minute report. Geraldo may not quite be a real journalist, but today it seemed to me that he was something more.

MEANWHILE ON CNN: While the cameras showed joyous voters in Buquba standing in line singing, the CNN correspondent, who could barely be heard, worried that too a high a proportion of voters in this mixed neighborhood seemed to be Shiites.

MORE FROM CNN: CNN reports that the explosions in Baghdad have "overshadowed the voting." CNN provides no evidence that the explosions in question were anything but noise, and to my knowledge there are no reports at this time of voters being killed or injured. But forget all that. If Iraqis are voting in the face of these explosions, then the story has to be that the voting is overshadowing the explosions.

UPDATE: Fox is now reporting that four people were killed by a suicide bomber in a voting line. Fox also says that at least one person was killed in a separate such incident.

Posted by Paul at 12:27 AM |

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