Bleeds, Leads, Yes...

Going against the expressed wishes of the Pentagon, several top U.S. newspapers treated the tragic arrival of the 2,000th American military death in Iraq as a major milestone Wednesday. The New York Times even used that officially disapproved phrase in a headline at the top of a page. USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, and The Washington Post all carried special features.

On Tuesday, U.S. Army Lt. Col. Steve Boylan, a military spokesman in Iraq, wrote in an e-mail to reporters, "The 2,000 service members killed in Iraq supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom is not a milestone. It is an artificial mark on the wall set by individuals or groups with specific agendas and ulterior motives."

But on Wednesday, the Times ran a front-page story marking the 2,000th fatality -- plus four pages of photos of the dead inside. The gallery covered every death since the paper last performed this service, at the 1,000 mark in early September 2004.

We'd say "Bully for you, NY Times," but that would pretty condescending. Keller et al. are just doing their jobs.

Who looks better at the end of the day, the papers who mark the 2,000th death -- as they have all others -- or the ones like The Washington Times, who choose to ignore this one in particular?