Come on, Paula, tell us the real news--2,376 American troop deaths in Iraq, over 17,500 injured, and thousands of Iraqi casualties.

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As of this moment, 2,376 Americans soldiers have died in Iraq, almost 17,500 have been injured, and thousands of Iraqis have been killed and wounded.

We can discover these numbers by visiting the internet. But this war should be in the consciousness of everyone all the time, not just those who have a loved one serving or the families of the dead and wounded.

It’s so maddening that our Mainstream Media are negligent in their responsibility to deliver the truth of war to the American public—a public which for the most part seems unfazed by the staggering numbers and the devastation.

In the last sixteen days, more troops have been killed than during the entire month of March. The information continues to run on the crawl rather than from the mouths of reporters.

Last week in my search for real television news out of Iraq, I turned to Paula Zahn because of the impressive description of her show on the CNN website:

‘Paula Zahn NOW’ brings you the stories that matter the most to you. Every night, we bring you the most dramatic stories: We’ll take you inside the news and behind the headlines from across the country and around the globe. Remember, the stories you see tonight on ‘Paula Zahn NOW,’ you’ll be talking about tomorrow.

Would Zahn disappoint? Here’s a segment from the show:

Two days ago in Independence, Kansas, a 16-year-old girl disappeared. Her friends put up missing posters, an Amber Alert was issued. The hunt turned frantic when a girl called 911 to say she had been kidnapped. But 16 hours after she vanished, there were hugs and tears of joy. The girl turned up alive and well and said she had gotten away from her kidnapper. But today police announced it was all part of one big lie. The story made us want to delve into one of the “Mysteries of the Mind.” What drives people not just to tell white lies, but to tell giant, hurtful ones, the kind that have been in the news and awful lot lately?

There have been many lies in the news lately. The lies of George W. Bush. The lies that took us into war. The lies about ‘yellowcake’ and ‘mushroom clouds.’ Certainly, I stayed tuned to see if Zahn would address the lies and liars responsible for the slaughter in Iraq.

But no.

Instead, I heard about the Runaway Bride; the Missouri husband/wife team, claiming that their sextuplets were in intensive care; and a schoolteacher in Massachusetts who said she had stomach cancer and received more than $35,000 in donations.

“What about George W. Bush?” I mentally projected to prod Zahn.

But no.

Instead, the anchor welcomed Stan Walters, author of The Truth about Lying: How to Stop a Lie and Protect Yourself from Deception.

I watched and listened to gain some insight into how to stop our president’s lies and to protect myself from his deception. But, really, I heard nothing I didn’t already know. Walters said:

One of the things I always tell my corporate clients that I work with is that remember that lying is done for selfish reasons. It’s always for the goals and objectives of the individual, and they lie either through hype, to harm or to hide something. In these cases we just profiled, you see there’s a lot of hype, there’s attempts to harm other individuals or to hide a wrongdoing so that they won’t be exposed for the fraud or the crime they’ve committed.

Now, this would have been the perfect moment for Zahn to ‘take us inside the news and behind the headlines from across the country and around the globe.’ She could have said this:

Like our president and his administration. Their lies are for selfish reasons--oil, greed, politics, and power. There was a lot of hype about the war, all the talk of WMD and terrorists, and linking Saddam to September 11. Are these the kind of examples you mean, John, the category of lies that are really huge that end up harming people?

But no.

Instead, Zahn asked if there are any ‘red flags’ to indicate if a person is lying.

Her guest talked about ‘body language.’ That conjured up all kinds of images of George. The gestures, touching his heart, and the blinking, blinking, blinking, like a curtain going up and down, up and down to hide the lies in his eyes.

Then, Mr. Walters said something so elementary it was stunning: ‘And we have to remember that a lie is only successful under one condition—somebody has to believe it.’

Now, this would have been the perfect opportunity for Zahn to talk about the majority of Americans who believed George W. in the buildup to war in Iraq and those who continue to believe him. Had she said something at that exact moment, she could have redeemed herself as a serious journalist.

Instead, Zahn asked Walters if some of the liars might possibly have ‘underlying problems?’

Well, we already know the answer to this. Of course. And Mr. Walters elaborated:

Typically, with a chronic liar we often refer to them as pathological liars…emotional flaws…personality disorder…a pattern—they start out thinking they can control the lie. But in the long run, the lie winds up controlling them. And one lie begets three more…And they can’t find their way out of the maze.

Now, this would have been the perfect time for Zahn to reference the maze of lies the president negotiates as he talks about Iraq, Iran and, then, when he decides to invade Syria.

But no.

Instead, Zahn eventually ended the segment with: ‘Hopefully you educated a couple of us out there so we can spot them next time…’

Spot them? Spot them? So many of us have spotted them, plotting within the Beltway where their lies have resulted in the deaths of 2,376 Americans troops, injured almost 17,500 soldiers, and destroyed thousands of Iraqis, their cities and civilization.

Zahn never mentioned any of this.

Now, Paula, on a personal note, I like you. I think you’d love to bring us real news. I wish you would. You should join CODEPINK. You’d look pretty in pink. And I know in my heart you would like to be one of the many women saying no to war.

Throw off those corporate shackles, Paula Zahn. Now. Don’t let anyone at CNN tie your tongue. Because the number of casualties must be spoken and cannot be said too often.

Authors Bio:
Missy Beattie lives in New York City. She's written for National Public Radio and Nashville Life Magazine. An outspoken critic of the Bush Administration and the war in Iraq, she's a member of Gold Star Families for Peace. She completed a novel last year, but since the death of her nephew, Marine Lance Cpl. Chase J. Comley, in Iraq on August 6,'05, she has been writing political articles.