Surprise! Anti-War Bias in the New York Times

Continuing with my theme of exposing the subtle methods of media bias, here's an article from the New York Times regarding the U.S. military's release of video clips showing Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as a bumbling boob.

The headline of the story is fine:

"U.S. Uses Iraq Insurgent's Own Video to Mock Him".

Here's their description of the video, which is also fine:

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"In one scene, Mr. Zarqawi, the most wanted terrorist in Iraq, appears flummoxed by how to discharge the machine gun in fully automatic mode. Off camera, one aide is heard ordering another, "Go help the sheik." A man walks over and fiddles with the weapon so Mr. Zarqawi can fire it in bursts."

"Another sequence shows Mr. Zarqawi handing the weapon off to other aides and striding away, revealing white jogging shoes beneath his black guerrilla attire. One insurgent later appears to grab the machine gun absent-mindedly by its scalding-hot barrel and drop it."
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Those "white jogging shoes" Zarqawi's wearing? The anti-American, anti-Western Zarqawi wears running shoes made by New Balance, which I think is based in Boston.

So far, so good, but the Times cannot help but interject bias into the article with the following paragraphs:

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"Zarqawi's center of gravity for his operations are in Baghdad," the general (Lynch) said. "We believe it's only a matter of time until Zarqawi is taken down. It's not if, but when."

But the military has made such predictions before, only to have Mr. Zarqawi slip away from them. Moreover, officials' view of Mr. Zarqawi as the main architect of violence in Iraq is more convenient than the possibility that much of the mayhem is committed not by foreign jihadists but by Iraqi-born Sunni Arabs.
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That's objective journalism? "...officials' view...is more convenient..."?

Then the New York Times reports, "The torture and killing of men believed to be the latest victims of sectarian violence have continued unabated in the capital."

They leave out what was mentioned in a Washington Times article on the same subject, which said:

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"He (General Lynch) said al Qaeda in Iraq is organized in three tiers: top Zarqawi lieutenants; local leaders or emirs; and local cells. He said the coalition has killed 161 of the top two tiers. Some have been tried in Iraqi courts and sentenced to death.

Most foreign fighters continue to enter Iraq through Syria. But better border control and raids such as the ones last month have reduced their numbers. The command said there are about 25 suicide attacks a month now, compared with 75 a year ago."
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Nope, the NY Times doesn't want to report on decreasing suicide attacks. It's too positive. It makes it sound like things are improving in Iraq.

Sure, all the news that's fit to print - with a twist.