Protesters lose excuse, skeedaddle: Media in Mourning

"Anti-war demonstrators leaving Bush's Texas ranch to take their message to the people, leaving media short of story ideas"

That was the subhead on the San Francisco Chronicle's story on the war protesters leaving Crawford -- since President Bush left to tend to the Hurricane Katrina crisis.

If ever there was any doubt that this was a media-made spectacle, there is no more.

Interesting to note that this article goes on to praise the protesters for 25 paragraphs, and barely mentions the military families who support the president and the war.

Tribune columnist Kathleen Parker comments on the ridiculousness of the celebrity-fattened spectacle, noting:"Indeed, recent events surrounding the war protest led by Cindy Sheehan have added a new dimension to the definition of tragicomedy. Not just tragic, not just comedic, but also ridiculous. The theater of the absurd has found pay dirt in central Texas."

Parker is not without sympathy for the antiwar cause, but at least has the integrity to admit the Crawford protest was becoming increasingly absurd.