AP - Do you want that with or without bias?

Associated Press gives newspapers 2 options for a story a "traditional lead story" with just the facts and an "optional" which is an alternative
approach that attempts to draw in the reader through imagery, narrative devices, perspective or other creative means.'

From James Taranto's Best of the Web Today:
"Traditional
MOSUL, Iraq (AP)--A suicide attacker set off a bomb that tore through a funeral tent jammed with Shiite mourners Thursday, splattering blood and body parts over rows of overturned white plastic chairs. The attack, which killed 47 and wounded more than 100, came as Shiite and Kurdish politicians in Baghdad said they overcame a major stumbling block to forming a new coalition government.

Optional
MOSUL, Iraq (AP)--Yet again, almost as if scripted, a day of hope for a new, democratic Iraq turned into a day of tears as a bloody insurgent attack undercut a political step forward.
On Thursday, just as Shiite and Kurdish politicians in Baghdad were telling reporters that they overcame a major stumbling block to forming a new coalition government, a suicide attacker set off a bomb that tore through a funeral tent jammed with Shiite mourners in the northern city of Mosul."

As Taranto said - "That "almost as if scripted" is a wonderful touch--a confirmation that many journalists have their own bad-news script in reporting on Iraq."

This story reminded me of the Saw Doctors song "Good News" - will AP provide some happy stories for us regardless of the facts. Or maybe even provide us with the good news from Iraq...which Chrenkoff's Good News from Iraq does superbly.