Setting Up Petraeus

So, today's the big day that grizzled folk-hero and friend to woodland creatures General David Petraeus goes to Washington to deliver all the positive spin that the actual news from Iraq seems unable to provide. How is this landmark visit being set up?

CNN's laying it on a little thick, actually, running "Volunteers collect Baghdad's dead" in the top spot on their site. It's not exactly surge-tastic, especially when the lede reads: "Volunteers carry out one of Iraq's most somber chores: Burying the charred remains of men, women and children. The sheik who leads them says he doesn't need the military to tell him what's going on. 'The streets are flowing with blood' he told CNN."

Over at MSNBC, things are much, much worse, with naysaying on all fronts. The New York Times, Petraeus, Al-Maliki all get cast as Debbie Downers this morning, and if the day wasn't bad enough, you look to the left and see that we're now "bracing for Horn of Africa terror."

Well, leave it to the Never Was Heard a Discouraging Word herd over at Fox to keep matters on the sweet and low! They are leading with the Petraeus story, but they make it clear that it's the General who'll face a "tough grilling" from the Congress. Their lede reads, "Capitol Hill pols take up positions ahead of long-awaited testimony." In other words, it's an ambush!

Fox has been working hard to pimp other news stories as major features today, as well. Earlier, they ran a large feature in their lead story well on Britney Spears' colossal failure at last night's VMAs. Now, they have a story up about a whale being harpooned (cynically, I sense a theme emerging...), and the accompanying graphic makes it look like the web editors for Fox build their images with the LOLcat generator.

Anyway, we led off today with a piece on the Today show's epic, historic, universe-changing Fourth Hour, so I guess this is "not a sermon, just a thought!"