Illiberal Liberties, Medially

It's just after 11 am here, and NPR is reporting huge explosions in Baghdad, which the NPR reporters called "a new level". You'd think with nice huge fireballs, the cable networks would be all over it. But all the cable networks are showing a press conference from the Santa Barbara Sheriff's department about how Michael Jackson was or was not treated during his arrest.

While CNN, MSNBC, etc. are all doing the same thing, my favorite is Fox News, which has a talking head talking about Jackson on one side of s split screen, an endless loop of ten seconds of Michael Jackson standing around by a police car in an airport hangar, and to the left of the screen is emblazoned: TERROR ALERT: H I G H.

Good thing the liberal news media is all over this one. In this episode of Rome II, the circuses continue even as the bread gets sucked out.