ABC, BBC Partner For Iraq Coverage As ABC Reduces Presence In Region

NEW YORK -- ABC News and the BBC will expand their news partnership in Iraq, with ABC reducing its full-time presence there while relying on the BBC for day-to-day reports from inside the country.

ABC will continue to have a Baghdad bureau, although it will have fewer employees than there had been since the war began in 2003 and no full-time correspondent assigned there. ABC News will continue have correspondents covering the war in Iraq, for larger stories like the upcoming elections as well as when the situation warrants.

"We will have a presence but significantly less than there was before," an ABC News executive who declined to be named told The Hollywood Reporter. "This is more of a reallocation of resources so we're not spending money for a substantial presence on the ground waiting for something to happen."

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[SammyD]

ABC should just continue with their variety news entertainment or go away would be better

[raker]

ABC News ought to reduce its presence, all right. They are by far the worst American "news" organization.

[mellene]

Might get some more honest coverage with just the BBC.

[slobone]

They should only rely on BBC for their whole network. Except Lost, I guess.

[TallyLass]

I already watch the BBC and readtheir website. Their news way more informing then what we get here. They truly cover the world. That's as it should be.

[hotwire]

Do you think maybe things might be getting better in Iraq? Guess there's not enough going on there to report about, not enough negstive stories. Sure sign that things are good is when the press pulls out.

[InofTouch]

Where CBC?

[ZellaBee]

What coverage?

[harriettubman]

I'll bet some of those networks have had to pay out more in salaries and medical benefits for their injured reporters then they spent the entire time over there.

[vote-obama]

what you mean the iraq war is no longer profitable...damn i missed that boat, oh well it's off to the middle east now hey joe the pretender wait up i am coming to that israeli thing with you.

[ramal]

Probably what ABC (as well as NBC, CBS and Faux News) should have done from the beginning since one gets far more truth and news from the BBC.

[dandypuddin]

true. it is the best news hands down.

[dandypuddin]

Now we're outsourcing reporting on our own war.

[themodernleader]

This country is becoming so poor that it can not even station reporters in the war zone.

[TheOldSchool]

I agree with everyone who has applauded ABC's decision to use the BBC's reporting.

The American network news teams are not even in the same league as the BBC's.

[ErnestineBass]

American networks stopped doing serious "NEWS" when Walter Cronkite retired.

[MarionWatts]

Don't be too hasty to praise the BBC. It's not lily-white and it has a slant. The BBC, according to a leaked memo published in several UK papers a couple of years ago, has a directive to present anything American, from the President on down, in a pejorative light. It is a very anti-American organisation, with its own agenda. It is a state organisation - in the UK in order to have a television in your home, you have to pay a licence fee of about $300 per year, all of which goes to fund the BBC. Imagine 60,000,000 x 300 and you get the scope of the BBC's budget. They've been involved, as well, in a lot of controversy concerning their competition phone-ins which were rigged, and also an incident where their highest paid television presenter was caught on a radio broadcast leaving rude and indecent messages on the answerphone of a well-known elderly British comedy actor. The BBC is as unreliable as any of the MSMs in the US. Their US election night coverage was an absolute farce.

[Takae]

Your comments are a bit skewed, especially your understanding of the BBC, the scope of the BBC's budget and what it offers. Basically, there's more to the BBC than you apparently believe.

The BBC uses the income from the licence fee to provide services including 8 national TV channels plus regional programming, 10 national radio stations, 40 local radio stations and an extensive website, bbc.co.uk.

However, the BBC World Service broadcasts to the world on radio, on TV and online, providing news and information in 32 languages. It is funded by a government grant, not from the licence fee.

Also, the BBC has a commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, which operates a range of businesses including selling programmes around the world and publishing books, DVDs and merchandise. Its profits are returned to the BBC for investment in new programming and services.

[HARVIN]

Poor Bobby Woodruff...not pretty enough to read the news anymore.

[thephenomenologist]

it's really sad and pathetic that abc will withdraw its committment to the coverage of actual news and redirect its resources to more touchy feelie blond-white-teenager-is-missing-after-breast-feeding-in-public or whatever stories. on the other hand, if it relies on the bbc, then maybe there will finally actually be real, critical, intelligent news coverage on abc for the first time since jennings died and koppel retired.