Showtime Iraq: on network news, war's a spectacle and debate's a bore. (Television).

THE PREGAME SHOW IS TICKING toward the opening kick-off. The networks are updating their SHOWDOWN and COUNTDOWN logos, upgrading their drumrolls and trumpet snippets, cueing their cruise missile videos and maps of hitherto obscure regions. The color commentators and military consultants are sipping their coffee in the green rooms, getting pumped. War is the spectacle of spectacles, and for television news there's no business like spectacle business. To air debate about whether war makes sense is decidedly, a lesser priority. The tedious stuff of policy chats is for Sunday mornings, ...