Find a bad, sad story and make it HUGE. That's what the Irish Times has done today with their lead story.
This is a terrible story. What's known is that American soldiers killed a mother and father in a car at checkpoint at a town near Mosul, in Iraq. I'm not arguing that this isn't newsworthy, but it's on the top of page one. It's not a particularly revealing story and is unattributed other than "Agencies".
What really has me wondering about this is that this happened on Tuesday. Dozens of other people were killed in 5 bombings yesterday, but that's not the lead story for the Irish Times.
On the 18th, New York Newsday published a series of pictures related to this incident. It's horrible, but we don't know all the facts yet. I know that those soldiers didn't set out to turn 5 children into orphans on Tuesday. I know that they too wish it hadn't happened, unlike those who were probably celebrating their 'success' with their 5 truck and car bombs.
So, what's the Irish Times doing here? Obviously, I don't know, but it's probably no coincidence that they wanted to play this story as big as they could given that President Bush's inauguration is today.
