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Ear to the Ground

What War?

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Posted on Jun 23, 2008
Flickr / soldiersmediacenter

Coverage of the Iraq war on American newscasts gets a fraction of the airtime it has in past years. Some network journalists complain that they have to beg to get Iraq stories on the air. Although the war in Afghanistan has recently gotten more coverage, no American network has a full-time correspondent on the ground there.


New York Times:

“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 [Lara Logan, the chief foreign correspondent for CBS News] 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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By Jim Yell, June 24, 2008 at 9:08 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

The major exposure to news that most Americans receive is thru the major networks and Repbulican owned newspapers. Sometimes when I attempt to watch the news on telly I almost think I have fallen thru the looking glass. Constant chatter about meaningless entertainment people and carefully none editiorilized announcements from the White House that have been proven over and over again to be lies.

Probably the first thing a new President should do is push for legislation to dismember these monopoly voices of the mega rich. If all we here is carefully managed news and outright fabrications is it any wonder that many begin to believe the lies? We are not served by these news monopolies break them up.

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By David, June 23, 2008 at 7:03 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

Coverage of the Iraq war on American newscasts gets a fraction(real news)!Yes,but surprised? Why should we!
What about the “objective coverage” on the Palestine
issue you might add asking ? The answer is simple : so long as these issues are not put forward and aggressively pursued by a majority of “objective journalists” it will not going to happen,because of the stronghold of the most mass-media (TV-Print,etc.)
by jewish interest/control.Jimmy Carter said it on
several occasions…just him, where is the rest ?
Certainly the “elected Elitists” won`t,for as long as
that blood-money is coming in,why worrying,right.
(And don`t forget to wear that lapel flag- pin!).
Besides,the average american has been fed horse-shit
for years with crap like american idol…....stupid,
idiotic stuff that keeps them eternal Morons for such reasons,as to milk them,keep them dumb and in the dark.

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By PatrickHenry, June 23, 2008 at 6:32 pm #

I’m with Charlie Rangel on the draft.  Universal conscription would cause mainstream America to sit up and take notice before allowing their elected representatives to perpetrate war on another nation.

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By Arabian Thoroughbred, June 23, 2008 at 3:13 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

Actually it’s better that the U.S. mainstream media outlets are not covering the Iraq-Afghanistan wars and international news in general. For when the do, they give the news the usual spin and echo the words of the misinformation campaign of the Administration.In this case, this otherwise shortcoming is a blessing in disguise.

You can always get better and more balanced news about the wars and international affairs from the following sources:

1. Al-Jazeera Channels(Arabic / English),
2. BBC News (British),
3. The Independent Newspaper (British),
4. Haaritz (Israeli),
5. The Mozaic Intellegence Reports.

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By felicity, June 23, 2008 at 2:55 pm #

Looks like the mire that Nam became is replicating itself in Iraq. By 1964, five years into the war, news coverage of it had dropped appreciably. 

The Nam war lasted for another 11 years in no small part because it had left the front pages and the evening news lead-ins.  The fairly recent drop in coverage of Iraq could be ominous.

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By jackpine savage, June 23, 2008 at 9:00 am #

Ignorance is bliss…

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By Purple Girl, June 23, 2008 at 8:29 am #

When Indictments finally start rolling out- Add the Media Corps to the list as the propaganda Ministries.Hold the CEO’s of these Corps PERSONALLY Criminally liable, along with the top brass of the “News” organizations divisions.
A democratic Gov’t system requires accurate information, therefore Ommisions are lies and undermine the democratic system, which equals Treason.

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By moineau, June 23, 2008 at 7:38 am #

so much for informed voters…

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