North Korea Finds a Friend in the Media

A reader has passed on to me what I must say is a wonderful story about a delightful country way up north. People are happy there. They sure must be -- they march in lovely rows and have nothing bad to say about their leader. Why, this is North Korea, of course!

North Korea has creaked open its doors for Arirang, a festival that celebrates national pride and, this year, commemorates the 60th anniversary of the Stalinist state's ruling Workers' Party. Performers, who numbered almost as many as the spectators, won furious applause for their coordinated displays of rhythmic gymnastics, flying acrobatics, traditional dancing and military taekwondo routines -- all synchronized to a massive video and laser light show.

Isn't that marvelous? All those happy people. The story goes on and on in that vein. Now, I haven't posted a link yet. I'm coming to that. See if you can guess who ran this story:

1. The Daily Worker
2. Counterpunch
3. The Daily Kos
4. The Nation
5. The Washington Post

Give up? Yep, folks, the answer is No. 5. Seems that the world's most nutsy dictatorship has flown in Dan Rather and some other jackasses on junkets, and the Washington Post is right there, jotting it all down furiously.