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Some of the biggest splashes in today's MSM: the Duke lacrosse players are 'victims of lying stripper,' MSNBC fires Don Imus' trash-talking ass, and Larry Birkhead is the grand-prize winner in the Anna Nicole Smith Memorial Sperm Competition.

Meanwhile, this story describing the 'unbearable suffering' of the Iraqi people got somewhat less play.

One excerpt:

Saad, a humanitarian worker, is quoted as recalling the scene after a bomb blast: "I saw a four-year-old boy sitting beside his mother's body, which had been decapitated by the explosion. He was talking to her, asking her what had happened."

But what the hell. Let's give it another year.

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Have I mentioned that we need to take the money out of politics? Amy Goodman agrees:

Money is now considered the single most important factor in our electoral process. Ideas and issues take a back seat to the bottom line. This prostitution of our electoral process has one key culprit: television advertising...

The costs of running for federal office have been skyrocketing. More than $880 million was raised by the 2004 presidential campaigns. The 2008 election is expected to cost more than $1 billion. Sixty percent will be spent on advertising.

The citizens are the losers, and the broadcasters and elite political consultants are the winners.

Indignant emphasis mine.