May 20, 2006
E-Mail to CBS News, ABC News and NBC News
To whom it may concern:
For the past year, news coverage of the Iraq war has gone from sparse to practically nothing. But what's astonishing is that there's days when American deaths aren't even mentioned on your nightly newscasts. Since when did the deaths of American soldiers take a back seat (or no seat) to well, anything?
Other then a category 5 hurricane wiping out an American city, what could possibly be more important?
Even when you report a car bombing that "killed 9 Iraqis" (why aren't the "wounded" ever mentioned?), there's times where you'll fail to add that "an American soldier(s) was also killed today."
Since when did Iraqi dead trump American dead?
Four Americans were killed Thursday and only Elizabeth Vargas mentioned it. I say "mentioned" because that's all it was - mentioned; there wasn't even any patronizing video accompanying it (haven't seen that in over a year).
But ABC shouldn't be patting themselves on the back because "the mention" was buried five or ten minutes into the broadcast as it always is.
It's bad enough to ignore one American death - but four? If that's not news, tell me, what is?
This wasn't the first time that American deaths have gone ignored because I've been noticing these incredulous omissions on your nightly newscasts since last year. So we must have gotten to the point that American's dying in Iraq isn't news anymore. That's obscene.
(To be fair, CBS probably does a better job covering Iraq then NBC and ABC. In fact, there was a report by Alan Pizzy yesterday that detailed the Baghdad violence. But it seems that the only reason he was there - and why the other networks will increase their coverage this weekend - is because of the formation of the new "government;" so by this time next week, the networks will go back to practically ignored the war).
Besides failing to report American KIA on a regular basis, the American wounded - over 18,000 so far - are never reported on your newscasts. And neither are the 50-100 daily attacks, kidnappings, and dozen or so tortured and beheaded bodies that are turning up every day. And the bombings of oil fields and pipelines also go ignored.
Also going underreported - or not at all - is the fact that this new Iraqi "government," which was a stable secular society that women were part of before the war, is now an unstable Islamic Theocracy that has taken womens rights away.
And the fact that this new "government" will have no army, no planes, no tanks, no helicopters, no armored vehicles, no way to enforce the rule of law and therefore, no way to stop the violence - since they're taking part in it - is another detail that escapes news anchors and reporters whenever the "debate" turns to pulling our troops out, and presumably our resources (which means there are no answers. We're in such a pickle that we can't leave and we can't stay
When you consider how important Iraq is and the amount of coverage it gets compared to other news, it ranks second as the most underreported news of our time. The top spot, unfortunately, goes to Afghanistan.
While Afghanistan is thought of as this big success story, nothing could be further from the truth because that's a disaster too: the Taliban returned a long time ago, al-Quaeda has reformed globally, the Karzai government is a sham, the opium (heroin) crop is flourishing (with the money financing the terrorists), and not only do the war lords control the country outside of Kabul, but they're winning the elections that Bush is always bragging about.
And after losing 160 soldiers during the first three years of the war in Afghanistan, we've lost 136 since January 2005 (46 of the 81 NATO deaths have occurred during the same time period). And more then two-thirds of the American wounded, over 500, have occurred since 2004 (hello...? Newsroom...? Anyone there...? Hello...?).
If that doesn't tell you that Afghanistan was never "won" and is getting worse, nothing will. But you wouldn't know that by watching your nightly newscasts, or any newscast for that matter.
You don't have to spend years going to journalism school to realize that there's very important news coming out of Iraq and Afghanistan every single day. So why aren't you reporting it every single day?
Is it because there's so much bad news that it would be "unfair" and "unbalanced" to report it? Give me a break. Has the GOP intimidated you that much?
I know Iraq is so dangerous that reporters are practically confined to their hotels (which is another unreported story in of itself). And I know you pulled your staffs out of Baghdad because the war has become "old news." And I know it's difficult to get reporters into the Afghan mountains.
But at the very least you should be reporting what's coming out of these country's every day (novel idea, huh? And to think I never went to journalism school.).
I know this is hard for you to understand, but just because you don't have video, it doesn't mean it's not news.
Speaking of which, if an American soldier dies in Iraq or Afghanistan, but you guys don't report it, did it really happen?Yes, it did.
More here
To whom it may concern:
For the past year, news coverage of the Iraq war has gone from sparse to practically nothing. But what's astonishing is that there's days when American deaths aren't even mentioned on your nightly newscasts. Since when did the deaths of American soldiers take a back seat (or no seat) to well, anything?
Other then a category 5 hurricane wiping out an American city, what could possibly be more important?
Even when you report a car bombing that "killed 9 Iraqis" (why aren't the "wounded" ever mentioned?), there's times where you'll fail to add that "an American soldier(s) was also killed today."
Since when did Iraqi dead trump American dead?
Four Americans were killed Thursday and only Elizabeth Vargas mentioned it. I say "mentioned" because that's all it was - mentioned; there wasn't even any patronizing video accompanying it (haven't seen that in over a year).
But ABC shouldn't be patting themselves on the back because "the mention" was buried five or ten minutes into the broadcast as it always is.
It's bad enough to ignore one American death - but four? If that's not news, tell me, what is?
This wasn't the first time that American deaths have gone ignored because I've been noticing these incredulous omissions on your nightly newscasts since last year. So we must have gotten to the point that American's dying in Iraq isn't news anymore. That's obscene.
(To be fair, CBS probably does a better job covering Iraq then NBC and ABC. In fact, there was a report by Alan Pizzy yesterday that detailed the Baghdad violence. But it seems that the only reason he was there - and why the other networks will increase their coverage this weekend - is because of the formation of the new "government;" so by this time next week, the networks will go back to practically ignored the war).
Besides failing to report American KIA on a regular basis, the American wounded - over 18,000 so far - are never reported on your newscasts. And neither are the 50-100 daily attacks, kidnappings, and dozen or so tortured and beheaded bodies that are turning up every day. And the bombings of oil fields and pipelines also go ignored.
Also going underreported - or not at all - is the fact that this new Iraqi "government," which was a stable secular society that women were part of before the war, is now an unstable Islamic Theocracy that has taken womens rights away.
And the fact that this new "government" will have no army, no planes, no tanks, no helicopters, no armored vehicles, no way to enforce the rule of law and therefore, no way to stop the violence - since they're taking part in it - is another detail that escapes news anchors and reporters whenever the "debate" turns to pulling our troops out, and presumably our resources (which means there are no answers. We're in such a pickle that we can't leave and we can't stay.).
When you consider how important Iraq is and the amount of coverage it gets compared to other news, it ranks second as the most underreported news of our time. The top spot, unfortunately, goes to Afghanistan.
While Afghanistan is thought of as this big success story, nothing could be further from the truth because that's a disaster too: the Taliban returned a long time ago, al-Quaeda has reformed globally, the Karzai government is a sham, the opium (heroin) crop is flourishing (with the money financing the terrorists), and not only do the war lords control the country outside of Kabul, but they're winning the elections that Bush is always bragging about.
And after losing 160 soldiers during the first three years of the war in Afghanistan, we've lost 136 since January 2005 (46 of the 81 NATO deaths have occurred during the same time period). And more then two-thirds of the American wounded, over 500, have occurred since 2004 (hello...? Newsroom...? Anyone there...? Hello...?).
If that doesn't tell you that Afghanistan was never "won" and is getting worse, nothing will. But you wouldn't know that by watching your nightly newscasts, or any newscast for that matter.
You don't have to spend years going to journalism school to realize that there's very important news coming out of Iraq and Afghanistan every single day. So why aren't you reporting it every single day?
Is it because there's so much bad news that it would be "unfair" and "unbalanced" to report it? Give me a break. Has the GOP intimidated you that much?
I know Iraq is so dangerous that reporters are practically confined to their hotels (which is another unreported story in of itself). And I know you pulled your staffs out of Baghdad because the war has become "old news." And I know it's difficult to get reporters into the Afghan mountains.
But at the very least you should be reporting what's coming out of these country's every day (novel idea, huh? And to think I never went to journalism school.).
I know this is hard for you to understand, but just because you don't have video, it doesn't mean it's not news.
Speaking of which, if an American soldier dies in Iraq or Afghanistan, but you guys don't report it, did it really happen?Yes, it did.
More here, here and here.
+/- show/hide this post
