Media bias proudly displayed

You won't believe this story at Tech Central about the Afghan elections. (HatTip Instapundit.)

It was a regrettably typical comment from an American reporter in this part of the world. "At least it's news," he said of the Afghan election scuffle over the weekend. "Otherwise, this is just a success story."

God forbid it be a success story.

But that's what it was here, no matter how hard the international media tried to spin it. There were no car bombs raining body parts all over the polling stations. There were no last-minute assassinations. There were no drive-by shootings. The best they could come up with for "news" was grumbling from hopelessly trailing opposition candidates about washable ink and threats of a boycott. The media's disappointment was palpable.

It's not like this is news to some of us, but we have to keep repeating these stories until the majority of people in the world get it.

Are these the kind of "reporters" that you want to get your news from? With bloggers, at least the bias is on display for all to see. Since you are forewarned, you can make your own judgments about whether or not you want to follow my blog. You can check my sources and see if I'm distorting. With "closed source news" you don't have that option.

By all accounts, the election was a rousing success.

Turnout was described as "massive." Men in turbans and baggy sharwals lined up in orderly fashion to cast their ballots, many of them with uncharacteristically chipper looks on their faces. One guy I saw at a mosque in central Kabul actually had mist in his eyes. Women voted beneath tents at one poll near a block of wretched Soviet-era apartment blocks, lifting their burqas even in the presence of foreign cameras. In Bamiyan, home of the giant Buddhas destroyed by the Taliban, they stood in line to vote in the first snow of the season.

This is news that should be shouted from the rooftops, celebrated in every home in America.

Yet some can only find the negatives and ignore the positives.

No matter. Afghanistan is well on the way to their own unique form of democracy. After 40 plus years of war and oppression, they deserve it.