We often hear prideful chatter in the ‘sphere about stories covered by it but ignored by the mainstream media – two that come to mind are Ann Coulter’s recent comments about John Edwards and Trent Lott’s wistful remembrances in 2002 about Strom Thurmond and the Dixiecrats – events covered but not widely reported by the mainstream media until the ground was well travelled by the ‘sphere. Today brings a painful example of the reverse: Eat the Press covers the latest issue of Newsweek – an issue “featuring the words of troops killed in Iraq — their letters, journals and emails sent to wives, sons, daughters, siblings, parents, sweethearts, friends”, described by Washington Post Co. chair Don Graham as possibly “the best issue of Newsweek in the 75 years of the magazine” – and the absence of any significant coverage by it in the ‘sphere:
Technorati shows 76 links to the story — barely a blip, especially after almost a week in. Meanwhile, the blogs that did pick it up are hardly big shakers — this one has one inbound link, as does this one, by a woman whose nephew had a poem in the issue. He was killed in Iraq this past summer. This one’s got nine, this one’s got 25. There’s no Little Green Footballs, no Instapundit, no Atrios, no Malkin, no Daily Kos, no ThinkProgress, no Crooks & Liars, no Captain’s Quarters, no Power Line, and, yes, no Huffington Post (though the package hit #1 on MSNBC.com, which meant it showed up on ETP via the “Top Stories” widget to the left). All of these blogs have spent plenty of bandwidth arguing for and against the Iraq war, debating what the best move is for the country and for the troops. Bring them home, say some. Honor them and their mission, say others. They don’t agree on much, but they do agree that the men and women serving in Iraq are important, and heroic, and should be respected and appreciated. Yet, they gave this issue a miss.