with a wink and a nod

I heard this teaser a while back on MSNBC:

Harry Reid says the war is lost.

The White House says, “No way!”

Tune in for the showdown:

Keith Olbermann at 8 weekdays!

Those of us who watch cable “news” are so used to these teasers that we don’t even give them a second thought. I know that’s true for me, and I’m supposedly some kind of media watcher.

I’m just sayin’: that’s not “news.”

There is, of course, news—but you have to dig to find it.

I found some here today, written up by Jules Crittenden, so you know it comes with attitude.

Hey, check this out. Here’s an MNF-I press release from yesterday that suggests lower intensity, longer-duration sweeps can disrupt the enemy.  I scanned the wires last night and did not see this reported.  The Iraq day story by Richard Reid was about 7 U.S. killed, 55 Iraqis found murdered, explosions heard and political setbacks. Nothing about any success. Is this because the AP considers news of successful operations to be bullshit, or otherwise meaningless? Wouldn’t be the first time. But this doesn’t sound like meaningless bullshit to me:

Regimental Combat Team 2 and elements of the Iraqi Army’s 7th Division completed Operation Harris Ba’sil after eight weeks of interdicting and disrupting enemy routes and safe havens outside of the major cities of the Euphrates River valley in western al Anbar province.

The operation, dubbed “Valiant Guardian”, involved nearly 4,000 Marines, Soldiers and Sailors covering most of the 30,000 square miles of RCT-2’s operating area.

“We uncovered over 250 caches, arrested over 250 suspected insurgents and discovered over 100 improvised explosive devices,” said Lt. Col. Michael Manning, operations officer for RCT-2. “We clearly surprised them, the number of caches and detainees attest to that but more importantly, we let the enemy know that they can’t hide from us.”

There’s more at MNF-I.  Terrorist safe house destroyed in Baghdad. 20 armed locals rush to aid of Iraq police in Duluiyah … a dead al-Qaeda bigshot’s hometown described as a Sunni insurgent stronghold. That’s pretty impressive. I’m guessing its the local Shiites trying to defend themselves, but who knows. Why can’t I find it in a Google news search?

Good question.