On the Red Carpet with the Portal

We're not real current with celebrity news around the Portal (is Brittainy in or out of rehab ?). Surfing around the net, however, we stumbled across the news that the Jolie-Pitt Foundation (as in "Brangelina") has donated $1 million to benefit American and Iraqi children affected by the war.

$500,000 is dedicated to the Armed Services YMCA Project Hero Program. The ASYMCA works through schools to provide counseling services, educational assistance and emotional support to children of military families coping with long deployments and/or grief.

The other half million bucks benefits three groups working to sustain educational opportunity for Iraqi children: a group serving refugee Iraqi children in Jordan, a group assisting Iraqi moms still in country and a third group working specifically in Najaf.

The web headlines particularly caught our eye because the blogosphere is abuzz follwing reports of diminishing media coverage of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. The rhetorical pot shots at network news in particular focus on the generous coverage of entertainment and celebrity "news" (this could be a good introduction to Abu Muqawama if you're not already following the blog).

So you'd expect that the bona fide celebrity surrounding Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie would lend some cache to covering America's longest armed conflict, right?

Don't bet your Underwood on it.

Wierdly, the headlines catching our eye all turned out to come from foreign press sources: the Calgary Herald, the BBC, Ireland's DRE, the Malaysia Star. Even more wierdly, we've seen no coverage of Brad and Angelina's philanthropical zeal on "Extra" or "TMZ" when we parked in front of the tube to audit those shows.

Does the corporate media truely believe we Americans are so averse to difficult issues that we'll turn off the TV if they so much as mention them? Do they really think we'll get so angry if we hear about our wars that we'll stop buying the cushioned innersoles and deodorants their sponsors sell ?

Even more scary: what will the media advisors to the Presidential campaigns recommend they do when talking to us about the issues brought up by our nation's wars ?

This won't be the only lament you'll hear from us about media coverage of Iraq. One of the factors that launched the Portal was when we noticed CBS News discontinued their "American Heroes" spots when Bob Shiefer left the anchor chair (some are archived on the CBS News tribute page).

More importantly, this won't be the last time we'll be highlighting the compassion and generosity inspired by the sacrifice military families endure.

Be sure to take a look at the ASYMCA website. The organization has a long history of support to our troops and offers a broad array of services to the enlisted and their families. The Project Hero Program premiered at Camp Pendleton; the chapter offers more info at its website.