Jingo all the way

This morning on NPR, Bob Edwards, in one of those supposed-to-be-quaint anecdotal interludes, tells of a hockey game last night between the NHL's New York Islanders and Montreal Canadiens. The Canadian fans booed through the entire US national anthem, to which the commentator quips something to the effect of: "Their plan backfired, though; their team lost 6-3." Huh? Are they booing in order to cheer their team on to victory or to oppose unprovoked war?

No, I'm not surprised. A few glimpses of the American media toadyism yesterday: Fox News runs the on-screen graphic "WAR ON TERROR"--following Bush's illogic that Iraq had something to do with 9/11 or a terrorist attack on Americans. The bottom-of-screen crawl read: "Pentagon: If you're not sure it's 'Shock and Awe,' it's not." Terry Moran on ABC gushes about the latest White House briefing and, flipping channels, some general-for-hire on CBS says that the two missiles launched at Kuwait--Scuds, the kind Saddam wasn't supposed to have--prove that Bush was right to launch this war. And today's Minneapolis Star Tribune runs this headline, straight off the Pentagon's press release: "Military pleased with Patriot missile system performance."