Coverage Focuses on U.S.-Caused Civilian Deaths When Taliban Responsible for Ten Times More, Zings CBS's Logan

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CBS's Lara Logan may be in Uganda, but she recognized the skew of media coverage of the WikiLeaks war documents on the U.S. involvement in Afghanistan as she contended “the coverage would indicate that it's more of an issue for the U.S. to kill Afghan civilians than it is for the Taliban to do so.”

CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric asked her about how the documents cite “the number of Afghan civilians who have been killed. How do you think this will damage the war effort?” Logan took the question in another direction:

Well, the issue of civilian casualties is a major one and the U.S. has taken a lot of criticism because of this. However, what's interesting to note that is according to the documents, 195 Afghan civilians have been killed. But also according to the documents, two thousand Afghan civilians have been killed by the Taliban, which is more than ten times the number said to be killed by U.S. and NATO forces. And very little is being made of that. The coverage would indicate that it's more of an issue for the U.S. to kill Afghan civilians than it is for the Taliban to do so.

Indeed, neither ABC nor NBC on Monday night pointed out the number of Afghans killed by the Taliban, while ABC's Martha Raddatz directed World News viewers toward “horrifying detail about civilian deaths in 2007. Five ground-launched American rockets destroy a compound where it is believed a senior al Qaeda commander is staying. The Army Delta Force arrives to find seven children killed by the rockets and no al Qaeda commander.”

Earlier. In June, Logan, CBS's chief foreign correspondent, scolded the journalistic ethics of the Rolling Stone reporter whose story led to General Stanley McChystal's departure:

CBS's Logan Zings Hastings: He’s ‘Never Served His Country the Way McChrystal Has’