Major Networks Putting Iraq On The Back Burner: Reporters

The New York Times has a piece today on the dwindling amount of time US news networks are spending on Iraq and Afghanistan:

According to data compiled by Andrew Tyndall, a television consultant who monitors the three network evening newscasts, coverage of Iraq has been "massively scaled back this year." Almost halfway into 2008, the three newscasts have shown 181 weekday minutes of Iraq coverage, compared with 1,157 minutes for all of 2007. The "CBS Evening News" has devoted the fewest minutes to Iraq, 51, versus 55 minutes on ABC's "World News" and 74 minutes on "NBC Nightly News." (The average evening newscast is 22 minutes long.)

A post on the blog, Obsidian Wings, points out that Tyndall's numbers mean Americans are getting about "two minutes of Iraq coverage, per network, per week."

And we ought to care. We are responsible for the present state of Iraq, and we ought to care what happens there. Besides, we have men and women risking their lives in Iraq. We owe both Iraqis and our troops more than 181 weekday minutes, for all three networks. That's about two minutes of Iraq coverage, per network, per week. And that's far too little.

Comments

[FilthyPerson]

"By telephone from Baghdad, Mr. McCarthy said he was not as busy as he was a year ago. A decline in the relative amount of violence “is taking the urgency out” of some of the coverage, he said. Still, he gets on ABC’s “World News” and other programs with stories, including one on Friday about American gains in northern Iraq."
BRIAN STELTER
NYT.com June23, 2008

[BigLib]

Unsurprising to see this. Events no longer mesh with the narrative, thus even the same level of coverage would point that up much too uncomfortably.

[Superbus]

It's generally only the bad news the MSM broadcasts, but since the success of the surge, more Iraqi forces are taking over the job as witnessed by their operation in Basra.

[speakingtruth2power]

Only Stupor Bus could see the MSM's devious silence

as proof of his groupthinking dismissal of the violence.

[trollsbwild]

Thank you, delusional one. Meanwhile, could you provide us with any news on the progess of political reconciliation there?
Also, since we are so successful there, why can't we start drawing down troop levels?
Finally, how many times can you tout the success of a whack-a-mole operaton? Al Sadr is in hiding again and will certainly re-surface when he feels the time is right.

[TexasDem0]

How do you define success?

[SmellyOne]

C'mon... YOU PEOPLE know the game...

If it bleeds, it leads.

Iraq isn't bleeding nearly as much as it used.

I think it's the DUTY of journalists to continue to cover the war, EVEN WHEN THINGS ARE GOING BETTER.

BTW... Look how much HuffPo's coverage has dropped. The only time we see a front page headline for Iraq is when something really BAD happens.

[sdskelton03]

Your are correct Mr. SmellyOne.

Although the situation is still far from good, significant progress has been achieved on the political and security front.

Steps to political reconciliation and benchmarks achieved don't make exciting news that drives ratings. Bodybags and bloodshed do.

[speakingtruth2power]

Willfully delusional cow wards

speaking blatantly false words

should get their just deserves.

[TexasDem0]

I wonder how much "significant progress" you would see if you were serving in Iraq.

[CHARLESTHETENTH]

Should not surprise anyone since most are Corporate owned. Real reporting, getting out the facts and truth in delivery seems to be a thing of the past with our News Media these days. Many Americans still rely on biased TV for their news and they are influenced by what they see and hear to the point that many are not very well informed. The Internet is becoming more of an outlet for Truth in News, more thorough, and in general more significant News. Our own home grown News is more Tabloid and Reality in content then ever before and the important issues..like the Iraq/Afghanistan Wars get very little coverage. Most American are completely in the dark on what is actually taking place day by day over there and are made to believe, by this Administration and lack of accountability by our News Media, that things are going well. Democracy in Iraq is just around the corner and we are winning on both fronts is much of the spin put on News parroting the Bush Administration. Get on the Internet...read "Aljazeera" and you will find much more coverage on the recent bombings in Iraq and continued violence. The violence continuing in Afghanistan and allied troops dying along with many innocent civilian casualties. The border clashes between Afghanistan and Pakistan that has the potential for more violence and maybe War!. .you would be hard pressed to find any of this in any detail from our own Media.

[demfriend]

I am amazed that anyone has noticed the lack of coverage as it has been this way since the start. We had occasions when we had a few months of extra coverage bt it has always seemed to be as if bush/cheney sent out the news reports from the white house and we got little real news anyway. I have been angered by this but I felt it was never going to hit the nation as a problem if after years of the same ol' and the bush cheney reports nothing else mattered. How long has it been since Bin Laden was on the front pages or even news? He was the guy remember who panned and actually executed the 9/11 attack? Bush redirected us to fight the guy with WMDs who had none. Mission accomplished is the oil deals now given no bid to all the oil friends of the administration. Yeah sure, the networks have let us down on not too much war coverage now but the truth in reporting left us long ago when the owners of MSM and this administration wrote the news they wanted us to have.

[wadenelson1]

Outrage Overload.

What possible story about this war haven't we already seen or been told? IED blows up. More American soldiers killed. Al-Quaeda #2 man killed or captured.

Walter Cronkite gradually wore down the resistance in this country with his nightly reporting of the body count. Even at age 12, I knew that if as few of our soldiers were dying as Cronkite said, and as many VC/NVA, the war should should already have been over.

Maybe Brokaw/Couric/... should report the millions spent each week. Nobody really cares about the soldiers apparently (or we wouldn't still be there) but seeing their taxes go up, up up, well that ANGERS a fair # of Americans.

And, one more time:

It's an OCCUPATION, not a WAR. You can't win an OCCUPATION. Ask the British.

[ErnestineBass]

Or the French.

[Chillinout]

That is billions of dollars per week, about $3 billion.

[devadasi]

I agree wadenelson1. I no longer care about Iraq......it only reminds me of the the billions of dollars we're spending there, when there are 65 million people in the USA without health insurance. Bring our troops home now. Our system is broken and we're over in Iraq trying to fix their system. I hate the Bush crime family.

[Garvagh]

Bravo! The continuing squandering of hundreds of billions of dollars of US taxpayer money on the Bush administration's adventure in Iraq, is made much easier to accomplish if the war is kept off the screens of the American public.

The war obviously is immensely profitable to very powerful interests, and it also is a means fantatical supporters of Israel see to "protect" that country and to allow it to continue to suppress the Palestinians for another generation

[mystic]

I was unaware that anyone watches commercial broadcasts anymore anyway. Who likes watching commercials anyway? They are like punishment. And if anyone wants the truth instead of propaganda, it'll never be on any MSM anyway. After the NYT's Judith Miller lied about WMD , I get all the truth from foreign newspapers and the internet.

[VolvoBirkenstock]

On a typical day...
57% of Americans watch TV news
~54% watch their local news
~34% watch cable news channels
~28% watch the nightly network news
~23% watch the morning news programs (The Today Show, Good Morning America, etc.)
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/newswar/part3/stats.html

[lornejl]

Tonights news, brought to you by Archer Daniels Midland....

[SCG]

Usually it's some product to keep you regular.

[RuthlessDictator]

ADM - "Genetically modified crops are GOOD!"

[SaviourMachine]

The MSM is infotainment.

It's no longer about news,journalistic integrity it's about towing the line and profit$.

[k6007]

What, you actually EXPECT the msm to explain how the stop loss program effectively torpedoes any notion of the 'all volunteer' farce?

[SaviourMachine]

I haven't expected anything from the MSM for well over a decade.

Let alone that.

[blueshield]

The focus of commercial broadcast news is commercials.

Programming and editorial decisions will inevitably be bent to enhance sales.

If everyone who's choking on this concept sent a few dollars and decided to influence the direction and growth of non-commerical broadcasting (with all its faults, NPR is still vastly superior to MSM), we would ensure ourselves and our children a future source of information that at least ATTEMPTED to address the public good.

Did you know the Administration is now attempting to cut funding to public broadcasting? Wonder why.

[FilthyPerson]

Did you know that Hansen wants to government to sue CEOs who don't believe the hype about AGW?

[ErnestineBass]

What ARE you babbling about?

[ErnestineBass]

Here's an idea. What would happen if just 10% of cable viewers "pulled the plug" and sent half that money to PBS instead? Now THAT'S how you start a revolution.

[blueshield]

A long time ago I had a friend from Russia who said something I've never forgotten:

"Americans have such great freedom, to choose to be just like everybody else."

He was referring to Ad.idas and Ni.ke, but it's pretty universal.

[Bocababs]

Here's is MY Two Minutes on Iraq....my stepson and his new wife -- both stationed in Ft. Drum right now -- leave for Iraq this coming November. I can only hope that this wonderful peace, prosperity and downright "all's quiet in the neighborhood" talking points from McCain, Lieberman and Lindsey Graham all are a reality while my family members are over there.

[FilthyPerson]

Will you believe what O says when he returns?

Listen carefully because he's going to be walking a political tightrope.

[ErnestineBass]

FLAGGED for being an insensitive cretin.

[CyrusBeaucephus]

You sure know a lot about Iraq for a person that's never been there, and who doesn't know anyone that's been there, troll. I'll believe in your Surge when the Sunnis and Shiites start governing together. Bribing (and arming) enemies while escalating a failed military occupation is the best idea your team has. And its a Sh*tty idea, fool.

[ErnestineBass]

My thoughts are with you and your family, Bocababs.

[FilthyPerson]

Someone is surprised by this?
The amount of coverage is inversely proportional to the success of the surge.

Or as Charlie Gibson said on October 18, 2007

"One item from Baghdad today. The news is… that there is no news. The police told us that, to their knowledge, there were no major acts of violence. Attacks are down in Baghdad and today no bombings or roadside explosions were reported."

Typical.

Now that there is no dispute whatsoever about the surge success, no one should expect coverage of it.

[ThunderclapNewman]

You need to stop smoking whatever it is that's making you have these hallucinations.

[ErnestineBass]

Filthy, Immodium and rwe. Up in smoke. heh heh

[FilthyPerson]

... and you know it's right.
and you know that it's right.

[CyrusBeaucephus]

. In a poll conducted in September of 2007 by the BBC, ABC News and NHK, Iraqis gave the following responses:


70% of Iraqis believe security has deteriorated in the area covered by the US military "surge"
60% see attacks on U.S.-led forces as justified
Only 29% think things will get better in the next year
58% said they had "no confidence" in U.S./UK occupation forces
53% "Strongly Oppose" the presense of coalition forces in Iraq. An additional 26% "Somewhat oppose" them.

[noamjunior]

but hey- why take the word of the people who actually live there when you can turn on the TV and have Fox news tell you everything is going great

[Troubledgoodangel]

I agree with the "person". I don't call you "filthy" because, according to John Paul II, "to be person is not to speak flth, but truth." You obviously chose a wrong nickname. But you are right on this one. The Democrats give a damn about accuracy in the news! For them, all that is Republican, is inaccurate! What has this Nation become! What a shame!

[MemphisBuffalo]

We have a war going on in Iraq?

[ThunderclapNewman]

No.
Just an occupation.

[ErnestineBass]

Remember when "occupation" was used to describe what someone did for a living?

Sigh.