From New York Public Radio, this is On the Media.

On The Media is produced by WNYC and heard across America on NPR stations.

This podcast is made possible by WNYC and its listeners.

Support your local public radio station.

Visit onemedia.org to find where On the media is playing near you.

And please help support this free service by becoming a member of WNYC. Visit on the media.org to find where on the media is playing near you.

And please help support this free service by becoming a member of WNYC at WNYC.org.

WNYC podcasts are supported by Holy Name Hospital in Teaneck, New Jersey,

providing comprehensive centers in cardiovascular services,

interventional radiology and cancer care. More information at www.wholidame.org.

From WNYC in New York, this is NPR's on the media. I'm Brooke Gladstone. And I'm Bob Garfield.

This week, the dead face of Abu Musab al-Zarkawi

was enlarged and mounted in a gold frame by the Iraqi government, and the media displayed it like the trophy it was.

NBC's Brian Williams.

American children will see it during the dinner hour and ask who that is and why that man is in that state.

It'll be shown around the world. It'll be shown notably around the Arab world.

It was another Iraq mission accomplished.

The ideology of terror has lost one of its most visible and aggressive leaders.

Zarkawi's death is a severe blow to al-Qaeda. But how severe is it? For three years,

the Bush administration has portrayed Zarkawi as the evil nexus between al-Qaeda and the Iraqi

insurgency. But other experts claim his role was inflated, both by the White House and by

Zarkawi himself.

...