The Wayward Press  The Toppling  How the media inflated a minor
moment in a long war.  by January 10, 2011  As viewers watched
on television, Marine Gunnery Sergeant Leon Lambert and Corporal
Edward Chin prepared to bring down the statue of Saddam Hussein
in Baghdad’s Firdos Square. Photograph by Alexandra Boulat.   On
April 9, 2003, Lieutenant Colonel Bryan McCoy, commander of the
3rd Battalion 4th Marines, awoke at a military base captured
from the Iraqis a few miles from the center of Baghdad, which
was still held by the enemy. It had been twenty days since the
invasion of Iraq began, and McCoy had some personal chores to
take care of—washing his socks, for one. Afterward, he walked
over to a group of marines under his command who were defacing a
mural of Saddam Hussein. As I watched, he picked up a
sledgehammer and struck a few blows himself. The men cheered.
Then he began preparing for the serious business of the day:
leading the battalion into the heart of the city. He expected a
house-to-house brawl th