"THAT'S HOW IT SHOULD BE?"

Pentagon leaders have accused the media of "largely ignoring" progress while dwelling on problems. "It isn't all terrible. There's some darn good stuff happening," said Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Many Americans agree. A Christian Science Monitor/TIPP poll taken early this month, for example, found that 41 percent of Americans believe the media's Iraq coverage is too negative, 15 percent say it is too positive, 36 percent say it is balanced.

Yet US editors and media analysts counter that the spreading guerrilla attacks on the US-led coalition are rightfully major news in Iraq today, and take precedence over coverage of repairing schools or restoring water. Iraq is not a PR problem, but a policy problem, they say.

"No matter how many reporters are there, you are always going to have more coverage of Americans dying than [of] an electricity grid coming up," says George Condon, Washington bureau chief of Copley Newspapers. "That's how it should be, because that's what Americans care about."

Is that right, Mr. Codon? Americans don't care about the progress being made, they only care about the slip-ups and the set backs? Are you sure that is what Americans "care about" Mr. Condon?

Or is it what you and your fellow media managers care about? Because what you choose to report, Mr. Condon, shapes the attitudes of the American people. That "is how it should be" Mr. Condon?

I question your motives, Mr. Condon. And in the future I will thank you to cease presuming to know what this American cares about. Because in this case, Mr. Condon, you couldn't be any more wrong that you are.