Reporters Say Networks Put Wars on Back Burner

[babylonsister]

Reporters Say Networks Put Wars on Back Burner

Alaa Al-Marjani/Associated Press

For the people in Iraq, the war is fulltime. A woman wept as the body of a relative was borne to burial in Najaf.

By BRIAN STELTER
Published: June 23, 2008


Getting a story on the evening news isn’t easy for any correspondent. And for reporters in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is especially hard, according to Lara Logan, the chief foreign correspondent for CBS News. So she has devised a solution when she is talking to the network.

Lara Logan told Jon Stewart recently that war news is hard to get onto TV.

“Generally what I say is, ‘I’m holding the armor-piercing R.P.G.,’ ” she said last week in an appearance on “The Daily Show,” referring to the initials for rocket-propelled grenade. “ ‘It’s aimed at the bureau chief, and if you don’t put my story on the air, I’m going to pull the trigger.’

Ms. Logan let a sly just-kidding smile sneak through as she spoke, but her point was serious. Five years into the war in Iraq and nearly seven years into the war in Afghanistan, getting news of the conflicts onto television is harder than ever.

“If I were to watch the news that you hear here in the United States, I would just blow my brains out because it would drive me nuts,” Ms. Logan said.

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.)

CBS News no longer stations a single full-time correspondent in Iraq, where some 150,000 United States troops are deployed.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/23/business/media/23logan.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1214186415-QaKMMIpjLPAitcs9BsYLzg

[malaise]

1. It's the truth

deliberate exclusion

[spartan61]

2. Just today my husband and I were talking about this.

One would think there were no wars going on and no troops were deployed to fight these wars. One would also would think none of the troops have been killed or maimed because it is never on the news. Of course we did see on the newscast today the very important news about gorillas having heart attacks. This is unconscionable!!

[babylonsister]

3. I agree, this is unconscionable. Every time I hear another

story about Brittany, or about the latest carjacking, I wonder why their priorities are so screwed up.
And I also think about a soldier who may have just returned from his 2nd, 3rd, 4th tour-they must ask themself why they are risking their life if no one even knows what's going on.