This Onion parody of morning news product integration is a smirk-demanding indictment of a news media being hollowed by integrated advertising. What's really interesting, though, is that it's not just a really good parody of morning news or product integration. (Yeah, because we totally need another sketch lampooning product integration.) The surprise is that it's really good war criticism of a kind we haven't seen. Sure, Colbert and Stewart mock the war, but in abstract, verbal terms. It seems like the Pentagon ban on images of soldiers bodies returning to the States has seeped into the rest of the media. Video after the jump.

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Home Depot Honors Fallen Soldiers With Great Prices On Tools

TV parodists have been too scared to directly address the loss of human life. Sure, it's hard to be hilarious about tragedy, but it's surprising so few satirists have taken on the human element of the war in this way. The piece also takes on the way politicians and the media have used patriotism and the war to morally raise topics above debate; if they mention the bravery of a soldier, you can't question the next thing that comes out of their mouths. For a war so frequently associated with the commercial interests of the President and Vice-President, it's stunning it's taken five years to get a sketch that hits the point so perfectly. Comedians don't want to be crass in pointing out that corporations are sponsoring the loss of human life, but flag waiving polticians have kept them cowed too long. Also, mad props to The Onion for putting the resources into their fake news to get the tone and visuals just right. They're doing classier work than most of basic cable.

[via Columbia Journalism Review]