Cursor's Media Patrol - July 12, 2005

As many as 39,000 Iraqis have died as a result of the conflict in Iraq from May 2003 to October 2004, according to a Geneva-based organization's annual small-arms survey. A Reuters report on the survey cites Iraq Body Count's estimate of between 22,787 and 25,814 civilians killed since the March 2003 invasion.

Banned In Baghdad? Juan Cole's Web site is reportedly being blocked at various U.S. military installations in Iraq.

As military sources claim that a four-man Seal strike team in Afghanistan "may have come too close to one of the US-led coalition's highest-priority targets," the newly elected president of Kyrgyzstan says that "now we may begin discussing the necessity of U.S. military forces' presence."

During a Senate hearing about funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Knight Ridder reports that CPB chairman Kenneth Tomlinson, "Egged on by Sen. Arlen Specter," agreed to a public debate with Bill Moyers on the issue of alleged political bias in public broadcasting. Plus: Tomlinson 'expands witch hunt' to Voice of America.