Schizo

Leading newspapers lead the nation in our wartime disconnect | Mindy Belz

TOP: Stephen Senne/AP; BOTTOM: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

First it was the Des Moines Register. Then the Orlando Sentinel. Then The New York Times on Jan. 25 endorsed Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. John McCain for their respective parties' presidential nominations. In doing so, they and other leading papers (The Boston Globe endorsed Obama and McCain) in the same breath support one candidate who will embrace a lightning withdrawal from Iraq and another who insists that we fight to the finish. This is to portray a profound indifference to the war—not evident in their news reporting—or to reflect the schizophrenia of the American public when it comes to Iraq.

Having declared in an opinion piece last March, "Victory is no longer an option in Iraq, if it ever was. The only rational objective left is to responsibly organize America's inevitable exit," the Times would have been more consistent to endorse Rep. Ron Paul.