Milestone or Millstone?
Here's another take on the 2,000 dead media milestone from the conservative press watchdog group Media Research Center.
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Morbid Networks Tout Iraq War's "Milestone"
Aligning themselves with Cindy Sheehan, network news shows touted the 2,000th death of an American serviceman in Iraq on Tuesday. Anticipating what anchor Aaron Brown termed "another milestone" on Monday's NewsNight, CNN's Tom Foreman suggested left-wing activists were not trying to be exploitative: "War protesters are carefully saying the 2,000 dead should not be played for political advantage." The next day, CNN's cameras were among those broadcasting Sheehan's rainy photo-op on the sidewalk in front of the White House.
Tuesday's evening broadcasts deemed the death count far more significant than the adoption of Iraq's first democratic constitution. Officials yesterday announced that an overwhelming 79 percent of Iraqis voted in favor of the new constitution back on October 15, but if you had sneezed, you'd have missed hearing about it on either the CBS Evening News or ABC's World News Tonight.
CBS anchor Bob Schieffer delivered only this single sentence - "Iraq's government announced today that voters did approve the country's new constitution in this month's referendum" - before moving on to a full story about the 2,000th death. Schieffer saved time for this snide aside: "More than 90 percent of the 2,000 who died in the war have died since the President declared major combat was at an end in May 2003."
On ABC, anchor Elizabeth Vargas only briefly noted how "in Iraq today, there was a milestone on the road to democracy: The official results show that a new constitution was ratified by an overwhelming margin." That was it for Iraqi democracy. ABC chose as its lead story what Vargas called the "terrible milestone" of 2,000 killed in Iraq. Viewers saw two stories: Martha Raddatz on the anguish of Army medical personnel and Barbara Pinto on parents in an Ohio town who have lost sons in Iraq.
The NBC Nightly News devoted a full story to the 2,000 "milestone" followed by a piece from Iraq which began with the overwhelming approval of the constitution by 79 percent, what reporter Richard Engel at least called "a historic milestone" before he provided a general status report on the war, stressing both the ongoing violence and how "there are some bright spots," such as more jobs.
This morning, all three broadcast shows led with the death count. CBS's Hannah Storm announced: "We're marking a grim milestone this morning, as 2,000 American soldiers and Marines now have died in the war in Iraq." ABC's Jake Tapper at least pointed out "the war in Iraq can be viewed through any number of positive milestones: the capture of Saddam Hussein, the first election, or the ratification of the constitution," before launching into his report on 2,000th death. On NBC's Today, Richard Engel limited his coverage on Wednesday to the 2,000th death, although he acknowledged that "U.S. troops here in Iraq are not holding any special events." Indeed, the military does not deem it a "milestone" in Iraq. (See box.)
A recent MRC study of this year's Iraq war news found the networks had already produced 400 evening news stories noting America's war casualties, far more than those discussing episodes of heroism on the part of those same troops. Indeed, on Tuesday morning only FNC's Fox & Friends and CNN's American Morning showcased Army Specialist Darrell Green, who thwarted the suicide bomber who tried to destroy Baghdad's Palestine Hotel on Monday, saving many lives. Green's captain told CNN that while "this was definitely a large explosion...this was a success story thanks to soldiers like Specialist Green."
ABC, CBS and NBC didn't interview Specialist Green or mention his heroics. Evidently, they don't consider him to be as newsworthy as the 2,000 victims of Bush's war. - Brent Baker and Rich Noyes
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The MRC may be right that the final tally on the Iraqi Constitution deserved more mention, but its analysis conveniently ignores the major coverage that was given to the voting itself. I'd hate to be in the MRC's shoes -- essentially trying to make the argument, without saying so, that it's somehow unpatriotic to focus on the deaths of American troops.
Release Below:
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Morbid Networks Tout Iraq War's "Milestone"
Aligning themselves with Cindy Sheehan, network news shows touted the 2,000th death of an American serviceman in Iraq on Tuesday. Anticipating what anchor Aaron Brown termed "another milestone" on Monday's NewsNight, CNN's Tom Foreman suggested left-wing activists were not trying to be exploitative: "War protesters are carefully saying the 2,000 dead should not be played for political advantage." The next day, CNN's cameras were among those broadcasting Sheehan's rainy photo-op on the sidewalk in front of the White House.
Tuesday's evening broadcasts deemed the death count far more significant than the adoption of Iraq's first democratic constitution. Officials yesterday announced that an overwhelming 79 percent of Iraqis voted in favor of the new constitution back on October 15, but if you had sneezed, you'd have missed hearing about it on either the CBS Evening News or ABC's World News Tonight.
CBS anchor Bob Schieffer delivered only this single sentence - "Iraq's government announced today that voters did approve the country's new constitution in this month's referendum" - before moving on to a full story about the 2,000th death. Schieffer saved time for this snide aside: "More than 90 percent of the 2,000 who died in the war have died since the President declared major combat was at an end in May 2003."
On ABC, anchor Elizabeth Vargas only briefly noted how "in Iraq today, there was a milestone on the road to democracy: The official results show that a new constitution was ratified by an overwhelming margin." That was it for Iraqi democracy. ABC chose as its lead story what Vargas called the "terrible milestone" of 2,000 killed in Iraq. Viewers saw two stories: Martha Raddatz on the anguish of Army medical personnel and Barbara Pinto on parents in an Ohio town who have lost sons in Iraq.
The NBC Nightly News devoted a full story to the 2,000 "milestone" followed by a piece from Iraq which began with the overwhelming approval of the constitution by 79 percent, what reporter Richard Engel at least called "a historic milestone" before he provided a general status report on the war, stressing both the ongoing violence and how "there are some bright spots," such as more jobs.
This morning, all three broadcast shows led with the death count. CBS's Hannah Storm announced: "We're marking a grim milestone this morning, as 2,000 American soldiers and Marines now have died in the war in Iraq." ABC's Jake Tapper at least pointed out "the war in Iraq can be viewed through any number of positive milestones: the capture of Saddam Hussein, the first election, or the ratification of the constitution," before launching into his report on 2,000th death. On NBC's Today, Richard Engel limited his coverage on Wednesday to the 2,000th death, although he acknowledged that "U.S. troops here in Iraq are not holding any special events." Indeed, the military does not deem it a "milestone" in Iraq. (See box.)
A recent MRC study of this year's Iraq war news found the networks had already produced 400 evening news stories noting America's war casualties, far more than those discussing episodes of heroism on the part of those same troops. Indeed, on Tuesday morning only FNC's Fox & Friends and CNN's American Morning showcased Army Specialist Darrell Green, who thwarted the suicide bomber who tried to destroy Baghdad's Palestine Hotel on Monday, saving many lives. Green's captain told CNN that while "this was definitely a large explosion...this was a success story thanks to soldiers like Specialist Green."
ABC, CBS and NBC didn't interview Specialist Green or mention his heroics. Evidently, they don't consider him to be as newsworthy as the 2,000 victims of Bush's war. - Brent Baker and Rich Noyes
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The MRC may be right that the final tally on the Iraqi Constitution deserved more mention, but its analysis conveniently ignores the major coverage that was given to the voting itself. I'd hate to be in the MRC's shoes -- essentially trying to make the argument, without saying so, that it's somehow unpatriotic to focus on the deaths of American troops.
5 Comments:
Who decided we can't do both?
And that's it? You are just going to reprint the whole text of a press release from the MRC?
Interesting tidbit - the MRC says 79% of Iraqs approved the Constitution. What it leaves out is that you can't judge percentages in Iraq the same way you judge percentages in America. A 79% victory in the US is a flabbergastingly huge margin because it has the inherent assumption that the 21% who didn't win will essentially shrug their shoulders and go with the majority.
In Iraq, any amount of that 21% could decide to make a bomb and start killing people.
There are about 26 million people in Iraq. Granted, voter turnout isn't exactly 100% of that, but even if you assume 50% of all men, women and children didn't vote, that still means that 21% could be nearly three million people. Imagine if even just five percent of THAT decided to become insurgents - that's 136,000 people...roughly equal to our own troop levels. Yikes!
I'm sure my math is far from perfect, but even so - the numbers are not promising...
The MRC calls Schieffer's reporting a "snide aside" when he said,"More than 90 percent of the 2,000 who died in the war have died since the President declared major combat was at an end in May 2003."
But isn't it merely a fact -- and an unconvenient one for the MRC's view of the world?
I agree with anonymous that statements about how the overwhelming majority of the 2000 deaths occured after Bush declared "Mission Accomplished" is still an aside comment added almost as if it was news that had to be reported, but they didn't really want to do it. This could easily be a big part of the story and the media in general doesn't want to appear unpatriotic as they editorialize about this rather significant point.
You can read a rather dry transcript of PBS and Jim Lehrer's coverage on this topic. While it was a mostly bland discussion of numbers and statistics with Tobias Naegele, editor of the Military Times Media Group, it ended with this final question:
JIM LEHRER: Finally, how many of the 2,000 died since major combat ended, since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime?
TOBIAS NAEGELE: All but about 180.
JIM LEHRER: Only 180 had died up until the end of major combat, and so roughly 1800 have died since in the insurgency?
TOBIAS NAEGELE: That's correct.
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