-Caveat Lector-
MRC Alert Special: 'Fewer U.S. Dead = Less TV Coverage of Iraq'--2/28/2008--
Media Research Center
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From: Media Research Center
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Sent: Thursday, February 28, 2008 13:54
Subject: MRC Alert Special: 'Fewer U.S. Dead = Less TV Coverage of Iraq'
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***Media Research Center CyberAlert Special***
1:55pm EST, Thursday February 28, 2008
Media Reality Check study: "Fewer U.S. Dead = Less TV Coverage of
Iraq; Networks Minimize Good News From Iraq, Don't Press Democrats on
'Wrong-Headed' Predictions"
Below is the text of a Media Reality Check, posted earlier today,
recounting the results of a study conducted by Rich Noyes, the MRC's
Research Director.
For the HTML version online, with a chart, go to:
http://www.mediaresearch.org/realitycheck/2008/fax20080228.asp
For the PDF version, a formatted one-pager ready for printing,
also with the chart:
http://www.mediaresearch.org/realitycheck/2008/pdf/fax0228.pdf
Now the text of the February 28 Media Reality Check study:
Fewer U.S. Dead = Less TV Coverage of Iraq
Networks Minimize Good News From Iraq, Don't Press Democrats on
"Wrong-Headed" Predictions
One year ago, liberal journalists depicted the surge of U.S. troops
to Iraq as a certain failure. "A lot of people are going to go to bed
tonight terrified," MSNBC's Chris Matthews opined just minutes after
President Bush announced the policy on January 10, 2007. Other
journalists were only slightly more subtle. "Many experts warn, it's
too little, too late," NBC's Jim Miklaszewski argued on the January
8, 2007 Nightly News. The next morning on NBC's Today, the network's
graphic describing Iraq was "Lost Cause?"
At the same time, leading Democrats left themselves no wiggle room as
they, too, denounced the surge. Senator Barack Obama called it "wrong-
headed" and countered with a proposal to pull nearly all U.S. troops
out of Iraq by March 2008. Senator Hillary Clinton came back from a
quick trip to Iraq to declare: "I am opposed to this escalation,"
while another Democratic candidate, Senator Joe Biden, blasted the
troop surge as "a tragic mistake."
One year later, the President's surge strategy is well on its way to
succeeding. The Iraqi parliament has passed several laws meeting
required political reconciliation benchmarks. Attacks in Baghdad have
fallen up to 80 percent in the past twelve months, Reuters reported
February 16. Deaths among Iraqi military forces and civilians have
dropped by more than two-thirds, from more than 2,000 per month in
early 2007 to fewer than 600 per month since November.
And U.S. military deaths have also declined, falling from 126 in May
2007 to 40 in January 2008 and just 29 so far in February, with two
days left in the month. Yet this good news seems to have diminished
the media elite's interest in broadcasting any news from Iraq.
MRC intern Lyndsi Thomas helped tabulate all ABC, CBS and NBC evening
news stories about Iraq since the beginning of 2007, just as the
surge strategy was being implemented. After heavy coverage of the
shift to a new Iraq policy in January and February 2007, the TV
coverage began to closely track the rising and falling death rates
for U.S. soldiers in Iraq. When the number of U.S. fatalities jumped
in May, TV coverage jumped, too. When U.S. casualties began to
steadily decline, TV coverage of Iraq dramatically decreased.
[For more on how the broadcast networks are tuning out the Iraq war,
see the February 4 CyberAlert:
http://www.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2008/cyb20080204.asp#5]
While the amount of coverage has shriveled, the tone remains more
negative than positive. So far this month, the three evening
newscasts have aired just 41 items on Iraq, most (23) just brief
items read by the anchor. A mere seven stories were field reports
from Iraq. Only ABC's World News (February 13) noted the passage of
key legislation by the Iraqi parliament, followed by a unique story
the next evening on the success of the surge. The CBS Evening News
and NBC Nightly News offered no such stories in February, but NBC did
find time to report a visit to Iraq by actress Angelina Jolie.
Back in December, NBC's Tim Russert conceded that the media were less
interested in covering a successful U.S. mission in Iraq, telling
anchor Brian Williams that "with the surge in Iraq and the level of
American deaths declining, it is off the front pages."
This is not neutral news judgment, but a great favor to anti-surge
Democrats, since TV's lack of interest in Iraq spares them the chore
of defending their now-discredited opposition to the surge. Does
anyone think the media would have let John McCain off the hook had
the surge failed as spectacularly as it has succeeded? -- Rich Noyes
END of Reprint of the February 28 Media Reality Check
For more on earlier matching coverage patterns, check the
December 4 Media Reality Check, "Good News = Less News on Iraq War;
MRC Study: As Surge Succeeds and Casualty Rates Fall, ABC, CBS and
NBC Lose Interest In Iraq War." That's online at:
http://www.mediaresearch.org/realitycheck/2007/fax20071204.asp
- Brent Baker
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