Another week, another display of the broken media's infatuation with things that go flash! boom! Last week, it was the almost orgasmic display of fascination with the sea-launched Tomahawk missile attack on a Syrian military airfield. Today, it's the distracting spectacle of a massive super bomb -- the "Massive Ordinance Air Blast" or MOAB -- that was dropped on a subsurface facility used by an ISIS affiliated organization. It's the first use of that weapon by the U.S.
Leaving aside the military efficacy of the attack -- we'll be seeing damage assessments later -- and the deserving target, we're focusing on the media's almost childlike awe at the exploding bomb. We observed panels on CNN and MSNBC dropping what they were discussing to slip into their keyboard kommando uniforms to gush about the size and explosive power of the bomb, with the attack video itself on a continuous loop along with images of the weapon. Is it news? Of course, but it's the giddy approach to it that many in the broken media take. Some observers had more thoughtful reactions:
Last week, Tomahawks. This week the MOAB. Stand by for certain news voices to to pound out hype songs and war-toy cheers. pic.twitter.com/7jusQY8LAm— C.J. Chivers (@cjchivers) April 13, 2017
Trump has no boundaries, ethical or political. He just dropped a bomb never used in this capacity. He's said he wants to use nukes.— Sarah Kendzior (@sarahkendzior) April 13, 2017
Trumpeting the size of the bomb, rather than the results (if there were any), is basically the way the government narrated the Vietnam War.— Binyamin Appelbaum (@BCAppelbaum) April 13, 2017
Evergreen question: Does the Trump administration have a comprehensive strategy for the country it just bombed?— Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) April 13, 2017
Trump use of GBU-43 in Afghanistan notable because it smacks of desperation--sign Trump worried he will be "president that lost Afghanistan"— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) April 13, 2017
All of this on a day, as we note below, there is confirmation that the Trump campaign colluded with Russian agents during the election. But as long as there's no massive explosion involved, nothing to see here.
