Ignoring the true vile nature of insurgents

We keep hearing a lot about how a television talking head named Bob Woodruff has been injured by an improvised explosive device, or IED, in Iraq. And the media can't devote enough space to his continuing saga.

And, tellingly, this prompts no coverage that I can find.

During his weekly press briefing Jan. 26, Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, Coalition spokesman, provided details of insurgents emplacing a bomb at a school, and local citizens' growing rejection of the terrorists' goals and methods.

“They're seeing what you're seeing. Just in the last several days down in Basra , Zarqawi and his network placed an IED against the wall of a schoolhouse, detonated it and injured 20 innocent children,” Lynch said.

“Just last Sunday here outside of Baghdad Zarqawi and his network took a bomb, put it against a schoolhouse door and set it up as a booby trap.” Lynch said. “And if it wasn't for the awareness of the local Iraqi security guard, that bomb would have detonated when innocent children opened that door, and children would have been killed.” [emphasis added]

Seems like only the U.S. Army thinks this is worth covering. Injure a reporter or an anchorman with a bomb, and the press is all over it. Put schoolchildren in danger, however, and it seems not to register. What gives? Do the media really want the insurgents to win so bad that they refuse to portray them in a bad light until one of their own is hurt? Can they not work up even one inch of space for injured Iraqi schoolchildren?

Sadly, I think I know the answer to my own question.