Tom Bevan over at the Real Clear Politics asks a simple enough question: Does anyone care it is the anniversary of D-Day? Obviously, this blog does, I did two posts today about it. A lot of other blogs did as well.
But the media? Not so much. In fact, not at all to speak of.
A couple of people have emailed thanking us for posting Ronald Reagan's "The Boys of Pointe Du Hoc" speech from June 6, 1984, since it appears the anniversary of D-Day has gone largely unnoticed in the mainstream media.
No mention of it in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, or the Boston Globe. Even conservative-leaning outlets like the Washington Times, the New York Sun, and the New York Post missed the boat.
The Washington Post, to its credit, did write an an editorial referencing D-Day, but appears to have used it as a chance to take an oblique shot at the Bush administration:
We don't always take notice of this day on the editorial pages, and every time we fail to do so we hear about it from people who have the date — June 6, 1944 — burned into their memories and who believe that what Americans and their allies did on D-Day must never be forgotten. They're right, of course, and in these times it seems particularly appropriate to recall one act that would serve today's leaders in every branch of government as lesson and example.
On the day before the invasion of France, the supreme allied commander, Dwight D. Eisenhower, wrote a note to be read in the event of the mission's failure and put it in his wallet. It said simply, "Our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based on the best information available. The troops, the air and the Navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone."
It hasn't been exactly a hot topic on Memeorandum, either. Kind of sad, really.
No mention in yesterday’s Palm Beach Post.