The death count in Iraq is nearing 2200. That's right around 1.5% of the number of troops we sent over there. And yet, the media makes it sound as if our troops are being slaughtered by a massive insurgency.

Closer to home, 4 people died in wildfires in the southern Great Plains. The media, once again playing upo the deaths, makes it sounds as if a maelstrom has virtually wiped out everything south of the Kansas border (ok, you might not be getting much of this nationally, but trust me, we ARE getting it locally). Those four aren't even a measurable percentage of the rural areas the wildfires put at risk.

Hurricane Katrina was described regularly as a deathtrap, and we were constantly reminded of the thousands of body bags brought in for the victims. Interestingly enough, we weren't told of the many thousands that remained UNFILLED because officials had grossly overestimated the number of dead from the storm's wrath. Katrina, while tragic, only claimed the lives of a small percentage of residents in the Gulf Coast region where it struck.

The avian flu pandemic that was predicted by pundits who have apparently read Stephen King's "The Stand" a few too many times, has wiped out seven people in China, which has less impact on their population than if I slaughtered one ant in a nest of fire ants.

People die. That's a fact of life. It has happened all through history and it will continue to happen. But the media has begun to concentrate on every death as if it were epidemic. Parated2k's axiom "if it bleeds, it leads" is showing itself to be true with startling regularity. I don't mean to be cavalier about death, but I am suggesting that in many of these cases, we let the dead bury the dead and concentrate on the living.

As I look out on the number of injustices that never make it to the press because they're not sensationalist to make the cut, I become more and more appalled every time Cindy Sheehan hollers about the loss of her son Casey as if he were one of the participants in the infamous Charge of the Light Brigade. And whenever wildfires claim but a fraction of the people lost every year to the tornadoes that are a natural byproduct of this region's geography.

I, for one, would like to swear off MSM entirely. Now I'm not declaring jihad on the media in general, as there are many fine, responsible journalists out there reporting the news responsibly. But the sad truth is, much of their substantive work never sees the light of day beyond the community papers and local channels where they work. My contention is with the national media that buries these good stories, these good reporters, in favor of hyperbolic writers with a flair for the dramatic. Fiction is good for entertainment (and many of these writers might do well to use their skills to resurrect Hollywood), but I don't like to see it on the newscast.