Posted on 09/24/2003 7:28:51 AM PDT by BellStar
Democrats Say Establishment Media's Iraq Reporting Biased By Jeff Johnson CNSNews.com Congressional Bureau Chief September 24, 2003
Capitol Hill (CNSNews.com) - Democrats on the House Armed Services Committee returned from a recent tour of Iraq with a message for the American people: The establishment media is presenting a biased and unnecessarily negative portrayal of the military and political progress in the newly freed Middle East nation.
"I flew from Baghdad to Kuwait with Sgt. Trevor A. Blumberg from Dearborn, Mich. He was in a body bag. He'd been ambushed and killed that afternoon," wrote Rep. Jim Marshall (D-Ga.) Monday in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "Sitting in the cargo bay of a C 130E, I found myself wondering whether the news media were somehow complicit in his death."
Marshall is one of seven members of the House Armed Services Committee who traveled to Iraq earlier this month to see for themselves whether the American military has become "mired" in its efforts to rebuild the country. He decided to make the trip because of "bleak" news media reports that "contrast sharply with reports of hope and progress" from the Defense Department. What Marshall found surprised him.
"I'm afraid the news media are hurting our chances. They are dwelling upon the mistakes, the ambushes, the soldiers killed, the wounded, the Blumbergs," Marshall wrote. "Fair enough. But it is not balancing this bad news with 'the rest of the story,' the progress made daily, the good news.
"The falsely bleak picture weakens our national resolve, discourages Iraqi cooperation and emboldens our enemy," Marshall added.
Marshall is not alone in his criticism. Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), the ranking minority member of the committee, said at a press conference last week that the establishment media is dwelling on the negative news to the exclusion of the positive.
"The media stresses the wounds, the injuries and the deaths, as they should," Skelton said. "But, for instance, in Northern Iraq, General [David] Petraeus has 3,100 projects, from soccer fields to schools to refineries. It's all the good stuff that isn't being reported."
Reporting 'by the numbers' may hinder accurate coverage
It may be a matter of mathematics as to why "all the good stuff" is not being reported.
Marshall recalled that 774 journalists from various western media outlets were embedded with U.S. troops at the height of the conventional war. While Fox News Channel alone had 27 reporters embedded then, Marshall complained: "Today, there are only 27 embedded journalists from all media combined.
"During the conventional part of this conflict, embedded journalists reported the good, the bad and the ugly," Marshall recalled. "Where are the embeds now that we are in the difficult part of the war, now that fair and balanced reporting is critically important to our chances of success?"
Steve Rendall, senior analyst with Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), a liberal media watchdog group, acknowledged that the U.S. news presence in Iraq lacks depth.
"Yes, there are too few American reporters in Baghdad and throughout Iraq. I would agree with that point. I do think that there should be more," Rendall said. "But I don't agree that there aren't an awful lot of sources for Americans, especially those with access to the Internet."
Rendall: 'Politicians should probably stick to making policy'
Rendall believes the reports of widespread Iraqi opposition to the continued American presence in Iraq are accurate, and he discounted most of the congressional delegation's remaining complaints.
"Politicians should probably stick to making policy," Rendall said. "Politicians returning from Iraq, who were just given a V.I.P. tour, mainly including contact with top-level American officials, both civilian and military officials, are really not in a position to tell us the whole story about the facts on the ground in Iraq."
Rendall did acknowledge that he has no way of knowing what other contacts the members might have had with Iraqi citizens.
While claiming there should be more American reporters in Iraq, Marshall lamented the work of those who are there, describing "the harm done by our media" and concluding, "I'm afraid it is killing our troops."
Tim Graham is director of media analysis for the conservative Media Research Center, of which CNSNews.com is a division. He believes Marshall's analysis of the news coverage coming from Iraq is accurate, even if his conclusion is exaggerated.
"Are we really getting an accurate and complete picture? No, we're not," Graham said. "Obviously, the thing that's most newsworthy to the families of our troops, which is that they get killed, is about the only question we're getting [answered]."
Of Marshall's contention that inadequate media coverage is contributing to the deaths of American troops, Graham said: "That's a little too strong...for me."
Graham says: 'Realities of newsgathering' dictate what is and is not covered
Graham concurs with the assessment that there are too few western journalists covering Iraq. While the limited number of American reporters there may be affecting the coverage U.S. audiences receive, he said there are also other factors to consider.
"This is one of the realities of newsgathering that we all understand. You don't put on the front page that your dog is still alive or that traffic wasn't so bad today," Graham explained. "There are a lot of things in Iraq that are going right, and they're not newsworthy because they're not disastrous."
Graham compared the coverage of random attacks against coalition forces to the coverage of power outages following Hurricane Isabel.
"If regular life resumes in Iraq, it's not news because it's dull," Graham added. "The danger you get in is when you think the only thing that's newsworthy is the power's out. In Washington right now, the big story is that some power is still out, because it's unusual."
Rendall agreed.
"Especially with too few reporters there, it's going to be hard to get journalists to tear themselves away from those dramatic scenes to go and talk about the reopening of a school or the building of a soccer field, which are all worthy things and all newsworthy under normal circumstances," Rendall explained.
"But in a case where the story just down the street has to do with Americans coming under fire and sometimes dying," Rendall continued, "I think reporters will be guided by priorities that have to do with sort of the flash and the spectacular aspect of the combat stories and also the drama of them."
While Rendall dismissed the congressional complaints of media bias in the coverage of Iraq, Graham hopes news consumers will consider the liberal leanings of the establishment media and remember that a presidential election is not too far in the future.
"The media's coverage of this sounds more like a campaign and less like objective reporting," Graham said. "It sounds like 'softening up' the opponent."
In a limited defense of reporters, Graham said the nature of the news business is also affecting the coverage.
"Anybody who's going to vote, anybody who's going to form an opinion on how we're doing in Iraq," Graham cautioned, "ought to realize, with a grain of salt, that the news media doesn't feed you the happy news."
Democrats' complaints about media make perfect 'man bites dog' story
Graham also noted the irony he saw in the most vocal complaints about the Iraq coverage coming from Democrats in Congress.
"Usually, the news media loves a 'man bites dog' story," Graham observed. "And there's not a better 'man bites dog' story than Democrats critiquing the media for being too negative about a U.S. war. I think that's a rather remarkable thing."
Kudos to these guys..
This is what has been causing me such pain as well as most of you and our President too I am sure! A special place in hell emesis for the media that has been complicit in this! No surprise..........the Clintons were not the only ones who loathed our military
Also, I keep hearing that the media doesn't report on the day-to-day status quo, but only on things that are out of the ordinary or "ironic". This is true of course, but it is no excuse for the media's failure to report positive news from Iraq. A new school house or an irrigation system being built in Smithville, Illinois may not be newsworthy nationally, but a new school house or an irrigation system built in an Iraqi town by US troops five months after a regime-changing all-out war in Iraq most certainly is news.
I listened to the interview of this guy on FOX.
He's definitely a keeper...even if he is a RAT.
The most significant reality being the political agenda of the news orgs doing the reporting.
The garbage we hear from Iraq is garbage because it is only a very small part of what is actually happening.
Still not picked up my any majory media outlets.
Marshall is not alone in his criticism. Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.)...said at a press conference last week that the establishment media is dwelling on the negative news to the exclusion of the positive...so people will get killed and idiot Democrats will get elected.
He's also the guy who interrupted the Congressional Black Caucus event denouncing the war, grabbed the microphone, and said in no uncertain terms that the war was the right course of action.
And he's pro-life.
But a Democrat. And some of his other qualities have been questioned by folks from Georgia who know him/of him.
What you said. This guy was on a couple of the news talk shows last night, and he is the ONLY Democrat that I have ever heard that makes sense. He did not shout, he did not utter stupid statements without facts....etc. On Scarborough, that crazy twin woman Sanchez was on with him, and she could hardly control herself when he was speaking. When they cut over to show both speakers when Joe gave Jim Marshall the "last word", she was shown screwing up her ugly little face up with disgust. Then she tried to shout in the last word as they faded to a commercial. She appeared hateful (normal for most Dems) but he appeared calm, responsible, reasonable, and professional. We need to recruit him away from that party.
Please please please everyone. Send e-mails of support to this guy.
Of course, the reporters getting room service in the Baghdad Hilton are in a much better position...
Yes It's just sooo hard watching what happens and then having to convey that to other people. Without a Harvard journalism degree how could anyone ever think they would be capable of that!
It's amazing (well, not amazing) that we're getting no good news from Iraq. Supposedly the press is in to irony and out-of-the-ordinary and that sort of thing. Well, you'd think that an irrigation ditch or a school house being built by imperialist American troops right in Allah's backyard a mere five months after a war -- and that the locals appreciate it being built -- would have enough irony or be out of the ordinary enough for the press to report it.
I've also wondered about how the tone of the reporting would change if the UN were to take things over in Iraq. We'd probably get daily puff pieces on the humanitarian efforts and progress of the virtuous bluehelmets.
BTW, FReepers, the next time you're in Baghdad, The Palestine Hotel has a pretty good deal. I'm told the "no smoking facilities" policies applies to tobacco use and not to the facilities themselves...
Because "the above" article TWISTS his words and makes them look like a FLUFF piece!! CHECK OUT HIS WORDS BELOW FOR YOURSELF!!
NOTE: (I disagree with is his suggestion that President Bush ever declared "victory". It was never our understanding the President declared "the war was over". Only that the "major campaign" was over. That the heavy artillery major bombing was over. He always said "hard days were ahead, some of the hardest days". He was right. We also disagree that this is a "Vietnam". President Bush isn't making the "calls" like Johnson tried to do regarding troops. President Bush lets his Generals do their jobs. God Bless our troops and our Commander in Chief in the days to come.
Vets ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Media's Dark Cloud a Danger (Falsely bleak reports reduce our chances of success in Iraq)
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sept/22/2003
On Sept. 14, I flew from Baghdad to Kuwait with Sgt. Trevor A. Blumberg from Dearborn, Mich. He was in a body bag. He'd been ambushed and killed that afternoon. Sitting in the cargo bay of a C 130E, I found myself wondering whether the news media were somehow complicit in his death.
News media reports about our progress in Iraq have been bleak since shortly after the president's premature declaration of victory. These reports contrast sharply with reports of hope and progress presented to Congress by Department of Defense representatives -- a real disconnect, Vietnam déja vu. So I went to Iraq with six other members of Congress to see for myself.
The Iraq war has predictably evolved into a guerrilla conflict similar to Vietnam. Our currently stated objectives are to establish reasonable security and foster the creation of a secular, representative government with a stable market economy that provides broad opportunity throughout Iraqi society. Attaining these objectives in Iraq would inevitably transform the Arab world and immeasurably increase our future national security.
These are goals worthy of a fight, of sacrifice, of more lives lost now to save thousands, perhaps tens or hundreds of thousands in the future. In Mosul last Monday, a colonel in the 101st Airborne put it to me quite simply: "Sir, this is worth doing." No one I spoke with said anything different. And I spoke with all ranks.
But there will be more Blumbergs killed in action, many more. So it is worth doing only if we have a reasonable chance of success. And we do, but I'm afraid the news media are hurting our chances. They are dwelling upon the mistakes, the ambushes, the soldiers killed, the wounded, the Blumbergs. Fair enough. But it is not balancing this bad news with "the rest of the story," the progress made daily, the good news. The falsely bleak picture weakens our national resolve, discourages Iraqi cooperation and emboldens our enemy.
During the conventional part of this conflict, embedded journalists reported the good, the bad and the ugly. Where are the embeds now that we are in the difficult part of the war, now that fair and balanced reporting is critically important to our chances of success? At the height of the conventional conflict, Fox News alone had 27 journalists embedded with U.S. troops (out of a total of 774 from all Western media). Today there are only 27 embedded journalists from all media combined.
Throughout Iraq, American soldiers with their typical "can do" attitude and ingenuity are engaging in thousands upon thousands of small reconstruction projects, working with Iraqi contractors and citizens. Through decentralized decision-making by unit commanders, the 101st Airborne Division alone has spent nearly $23 million in just the past few months. This sum goes a very long way in Iraq. Hundreds upon hundreds of schools are being renovated, repainted, replumbed and reroofed. Imagine the effect that has on children and their parents.
Zogby International recently released the results of an August poll showing hope and progress. My own unscientific surveys told me the same thing. With virtually no exceptions, hundreds of Iraqis enthusiastically waved back at me as I sat in the open door of a helicopter traveling between Babylon and Baghdad. And I received a similar reception as I worked my way alone, shaking hands through a large crowd of refinery workers just to see their reaction.
We may need a few credible Baghdad Bobs to undo the harm done by our media. I'm afraid it is killing our troops.
-- U.S. Rep. Jim Marshall (D-Ga.) of Macon, a Vietnam combat veteran, is a member of the House Armed Services Committee.
O'Reilly had a great interview with Condi Rice today, and this issue was talked about. The nations press is distorting the news about Iraq and making it harder for our troops. I wish they could feel guilt!!
A local soldier from the Reserves, was killed this week. The Mother had seen the incident shown on TV and commented that she hoped it wasn't her son. Sadly it was.
How 'bout the floor of the House or Senate? That would even get it on C-SPAN.
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