Or rather, to Iraq. Same thing really, though you wouldn’t know it by the First Lady’s description earlier today.

Former CNN chief Eason Jordan recently launched (in beta) a new web site that he says will aggregate news and opinions on Iraq from a neutral perspective. Unfortunately, his IraqSlogger has already demonstrated the weakness of its knees by bending them to a known partisan ranter, and one that has been particularly unkind to Jordan in the past.

Michele Malkin, the PJ Media Harpie, complained to Jordan that he failed to cover a story that she believes was fabricated by writers at the Associated Press. So Jordan offered to go to Iraq to investigate it himself, and then offered to bring her along at his expense.

Malkin has accepted the offer by graciously stating:

“No way should we just take the word of they [sic] guy who admitted covering up for Saddam Hussein and who resigned from CNN after baselessly slandering the U.S. military.”

She’s going to be a pleasant traveling companion, ya think? By the time the trip is over Jordan may well have told Malkin to go to that other Hell.

However, I really don’t see any downside to this trip. If she returns enlightened by the gruesome reality she is likely to encounter (assuming she steps outside the Green Zone), then maybe she will start writing something that matters. If she comes back unchanged, then she’ll just keep spewing the same garbage that has become her trademark.

What I don’t understand is why Jordan would invite her in the first place. She’s not a journalist and has no experience in war zone investigations. She is just another right-wing op-spinner who will parlay this trip into a series of guest appearances on the O’Reilly Factor. What does Jordan think he’s getting by sponsoring her besides a pain in the neck sitting next him, regaling him with insults on a 14 hour plane ride? Well, that and a heckler that will, upon their return, contradict his factual findings if they in any way contrast with her sham ideology.

This is an inauspicious beginning for IraqSlogger. But maybe I can take advantage of it. Do you think that if I complain to Jordan that he’s been derelict in his coverage of a crisis in Provence that he would offer to fly me to the south of France to investigate?

Hmmm. It’s worth a try.

Nevermind the fact that the Bush administration is notching its lowest ratings ever in recent polling, or that the war they promote is likewise at the nadir of its popularity, the media still seems to find ways to prop it up.

A report from the Associated Press is headlined:
Unpopular Iraq war still has supporters:

“GOD-BLESS-OUR-TROOPS” is spelled out in four big signs along a wooded stretch of highway in rural southern Oklahoma.

The AP had to travel to “a wooded stretch of highway” to find this example of support, that also perpetuates the hackneyed falsehood that war dissenters don’t support the troops.

Last week the conservative media scored when Rumsfeld took a victory defeat lap around Iraq in his last few days as Secretary of Defense. The media entourage was something less than fair and balanced:

Rumsfeld took only outspoken conservative talk show host Sean Hannity and his Fox News television crew.

Today we saw the First Lady interviewed by Norah O’Donnell. Her support for the war is bolstered by her view that the press is getting it all wrong:

“I do know that there are a lot of good things that are happening that aren’t covered. And I think that the drum beat in the country from the media, from the only way people know what is happening unless they happened to have a loved one deployed there, is discouraging.”

Did I read that right? Is she saying that families that do have loved ones deployed are not discouraged? And as for all of the good things that aren’t being covered, she should refer to the report by her husband’s own Iraq Study Group that concluded that:

“…there is significant underreporting of the violence in Iraq.”

This surprising burst of optimism is brought to you by America’s Big Media. Why they are leaping to the defense of BushCo’s debacle at this time is unfathomable. Either they really need some regulatory favor to be granted or they are just plain idiots. Or, of course, both.