The Sadr Scoreboard has one Number

Austin Bay and others are lamenting the MSM's poor reporting from the recent conflict in Basra between the Iraqi Army and Muqtada al-Sadr's thugs.

So what about last week’s instant narrative of doom? Is anyone besides me tired of it? The quick damnation of PM Maliki and the Iraqi Army’s efforts last week reveals an immense ignorance of warfare, one still rampant despite six-plus years of alleged experience; it displays not simply hasty, herd-mentality judgmentalism, but demonstrates in trump cards the sensationalist, fear-leveraging slant of most media coverage. Scare’em into reading the screed seems to be the herd-media’s order of business, and if that doesn’t work, affect deep moral outrage.

As much as I like Austin Bay, I have to disagree. This is not indicative of dishonesty on the part of the MSM. Instead, it's indicative of their value system. From the AP reporting on the combat in Basra, we have this.

Street battles that broke out Tuesday in Basra and Baghdad's main Shiite district of Sadr City spread to several other neighborhoods and southern cities, leaving nearly 140 dead, including civilians, Iraqi security forces and militants.

The dominant MSM narrative here and in other battles reminds me of Evan Sayet's claim that some liberals cannot differentiate between two imperfect causes. That's why casualties are all lumped together and they run with stories about "140 people died in fighting today" as if you could give a baseball score by saying that in the Padres-Giants game, 12 runs were scored. Because the Americans and Iraqis are imperfect, they are no different than the Mahdi Army, so casualties are just casualties no matter who got whacked. It's the old bumper sticker come to life, "War doesn't decide who's right, only who's left."