By now you know the conventional media wisdom on how Bush won the election: voters put 'moral values' above all else, and that swung the vote in Bush's favor. But is that analysis correct? And what does this quick conclusion about the American electorate mean for the media? We'll ask Rick Perlstein of the Village Voice about that.

Also on the program: Listeners may recall the pronouncement by General Tommy Franks that "we don't do body counts." That attitude explains why the Pentagon isn't releasing figures on Iraqi civilian casualties; but what's the media's excuse? We'll talk about the civilian impact of the Iraq War with the co-author of one of the few attempts to independently assess it. He's Richard Garfield, professor of nursing at Columbia University.

LINKS:

It's the Wealth, Stupid: Right-Wing Class Warfare Swung the 2004 Election, by Rick Perlstein (Village Voice, 11/10/04)
Mortality Before and After the 2003 Invasion of Iraq: Cluster Sample Survey, by Les Roberts, Riyadh Lafta, Richard Garfield, Jamal Khudhairi & Gilbert Burnham (Lancet Journal, 10/29/04)