Enough Already!

So, I'm up at the ungodly hour of 4:45 am this morning because I can barely breath due to this sinus/chest/head cold I have and I flip on CNN - just to make sure the apocalypse didn't happen when I was sleeping. It's the regular early morning drivel - no rapture yet - until the familiar "JUST IN" pops up on the screen.

The anchor woman (I don't know which one - they all seem to look the same these days) announces that 6 people have been killed in yet another chlorine truck suicide bombing in Iraq and hundreds are being treated for inhaling noxious fumes. "We'll have more for you when we get more details", she goes on.

And then...and then...wait for it..."In other news, Anna Nicole Smith blah blah blah..."

It would have done my aching head good had it really been able to explode at that moment. Who the fuck cares about Anna Nicole Smith?? And how can you so cavalierly segue from a story about hundreds of people now suffering from chlorine poisoning in Iraq to that old, stale, tired, totally uninteresting story about a woman who died weeks ago? Who cares? She's dead. Move on already.

This weekend marks a grim anniversay. It's been 4 years since the horror of "shock & awe" set off what looks like an endless war in a country that has now been ripped to shreds; hundreds of thousands dead; so many wounded; so many displaced; so many children scarred for life; so many still living in absolute fear and chaos; news today that almost one third of the Iraqi children are suffering from malnutrition.

Vatican City – Caritas Internationalis and Caritas Iraq say that malnutrition rates have risen in Iraq from 19 percent before the US-led invasion to a national average of 28 percent four years later.

Caritas says that rising hunger has been caused by high levels of insecurity, collapsed healthcare and other infrastructure, increased polarisation between different sects and tribes, and rising poverty.

Over 11 percent of newborn babies are born underweight in Iraq today, compared with a figure of 4 percent in 2003. Before March 2003, Iraq already had significant infant mortality due to malnutrition because of the international sanctions regime.

Why isn't that on CNN?

There will be several antiwar protests around the world this weekend. On Friday nite, thousands of Christians protested in DC and many were arrested. Where's your coverage of that, CNN? Or is all of this just too embarassing for the colonial empire culture to face? It's so much easier to drone on about some dead, blonde woman, isn't it? Someone should really do a count of the hundreds of hours you've dedicated to dead and missing white, blonde women on your network compared to the coverage you've given to starving Iraq kids.

Seriously. You should be ashamed of yourselves.