Where is the surge?

Todays Middle East news as far as the BBC is concerned:

You may not be able to see the story names so I shall elaborate. Under the mini-headline 'The struggle for Iraq are the following stories-
Iraq seeks end of troop mandate
Iraq Journalist's family 'killed'
'Shia militia' behind Iraq blast
Raids target militants in Kirkuk
Deadly blast hits Baghdad market

Surge story count = 0

Under the main Middle East heading, there is one Iraq story-
US Fire kills Iraq bus passengers

Surge story count = 0

Under the mini-heading More from The Middle East, there are three Iraq stories-
Iraqi militants attack villages
Iraq reporter faces terror charge
Iraqis return home 'in thousands'

Surge story count = 1 maybe

Under the mini-heading Your Perspective, there is one Iraq story-
Iraq Voices: Improved security

Surge story count = 1

Under the mini-heading Features, there is one Iraq story-
No plan, no peace in Iraq

Surge story count = 0

So, today, if you were just browsing through the BBC website for news about Iraq, as I'm sure many people do, you would have no idea that the surge and other new circumstances have transformed life in Iraq. In fact, from the title of the last story mentioned, you would think that things were getting worse. That story is actually a history lesson in how shit Britain and America are in planning things, but you'd have to actually read the article to know that.

I know that news is news and history is history, but there is an old quote that journalism is the first draft of history. If this is the first draft, the final version is going to be almost completely bereft of the most important information.

The most prominent story of the day is interesting in at least two ways. It recounts the tragic story of a minibus full of people racing along a road designated for passenger cars only, driving at high speed at a checkpoint, ignoring warning shots and being shot up by the soldiers at the checkpoint, killing some, perhaps all of the occupants. There have been very few stories out of Iraq with this level of detail. Thats the first interesting thing. When hundreds of shootings, bombings and murders take place each week, you can't possibly recount the details of each one on the BBC website. It is a startling revelation of how few incidents there are now that the BBC actually takes the time to recount the story at all. The second thing to note about it is that of all the myriad good news stories you could have picked from this rather boring Tuesdays haul from Iraq, its a bad news story that makes it into prominent position on the BBC website. So the hundreds of stories about neighborhoods fighting Al-Qaeda tooth and nail, the rebuilding work transforming many places around Iraq, the bustling market-places full of goods, the many arms caches being shopped by locals to the authorities and the beefing up and blooding of many new Iraqi police and army units disappear- they will never be told.

This disgusting distortion of the overall story to suit the political views of the spotty juveniles who create the BBC website is one very good reason why the BBC should be reformed with urgency.