What the press should report about Afghanistan (updated)

According to our Dear Leader, that is. Bush took a surprise trip to Afghanistan and gave a couple of short speeches and even held a press conference.

At the dedication of the US Embassy in Kabul, Bush told the Embassy staff and the reporters what he expected to hear from them:

It's in the interests of the United States of America for there to be examples around the world of what is possible, that it's possible to replace tyrants with a free society in which men and women are respected, which young girls can go to school to realize their full potential, in which people are able to realize their dreams.

He had given the same instruction at the press conference a few minutes earlier, even more explicitly:

One of the messages I want to say to the people of Afghanistan is it's our country's pleasure and honor to be involved with the future of this country. We like stories of young girls going to school for the first time so they can realize their potential. We appreciate a free press.

He repeated this not-too-subtle hint about what Washington expects from a "free press":

I'm going to repeat what I said before: We like stories, and expect stories, of young girls going to school in Afghanistan. It means a lot to the American people to hear the President say that. It means a lot for people to realize that there is an entrepreneurial class that's beginning to grow. We believe in hope, which is the exact opposite of the ideology of the bin Ladens of the world, and the Taliban. (my emphasis)

Those are your orders, reporters. So get to it. We need warm and fuzzy stories for surburban Republican voters. You know, building schools in Iraq, young girls going to school in Afghanistan. Don't get people all confused with stories about insurgent attacks and IEDs and suicide bombers and a massive opium business. Or, you know, stories about how Karzai's government barely controls anything outside the capital city. That stuff just gets people depressed. Freedom is on the march. Oh, and pay no attention to that four-day prison riot by Al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners in Kabul. Nothing to see there, move right along.

[03/02/06 update: I'm pleased and flattered to see that Howard Kurtz quoted the last paragraph of this post in today's Washington Post. So for today, at any rate, I won't mention the critical characterizations of Howie that I've been know to make. :) Actually, he quoted this post in the context of saying that the mainstream media are covering the Afghan War very inadequately: "No television bureaus there, no nightly reports, no great debate. Totally overshadowed by Iraq. We've got 19,000 troops there, and you'd hardly know it from most of the media." Howie's right on that one.]

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