Sheehan's Democrat Party Exit Ignored: Are Media Antiwar or Just Anti-Bush?

Noel Sheppard
May 28th, 2007 1:44 PM

It’s been a full 48 hours since antiwar icon Cindy Sheehan publicly announced that she was leaving the Democrat Party due to Thursday’s bipartisan agreement on an Iraq war funding bill.

Yet, Google News and LexisNexis searches have identified that not one major media outlet has covered her announcement.

Not one.

Given the media’s fascination with this woman since she traveled to Crawford, Texas, in August 2005 to picket near President Bush’s ranch, one must wonder why they have abandoned her now?

Does this suggest that the media’s antiwar proclivities are only important when they shed a negative light on the Administration and Republicans, but not when events such as this speak poorly about Democrats?

Before you answer, consider the following data. Since August 1, 2005:

  • CNN has aired 511 segments which included Sheehan’s name
  • ABC has aired 92
  • NBC has aired 75
  • CBS has aired 63
  • The Associated Press has published 280 articles which included Sheehan’s name
  • The New York Times has published 147
  • The Washington Post quite coincidentally has also published 147
  • The Los Angeles Times has published 122
  • USA today has published 40.

Please be advised that this data is un-audited, and unchecked for duplications. However, it is quite clear that Sheehan, when she served a function of embarrassing the Bush administration, got a lot of attention.

In fact, as you might imagine, many of the 1,447 reports referenced above included actual interviews with Sheehan. And, if we broaden our search to include all major American press outlets, we find a total of 2,272 articles or transcripts referring to Sheehan since August 1, 2005.

Yet, when she made a major announcement concerning her departure from the Democrat Party for antiwar reasons, not one media organization thought it was newsworthy.

What’s the only logical conclusion?

Cindy Sheehan only had value to the press when her antiwar sentiments embarrassed the President. But, when she attacked Democrats for betraying their antiwar campaign promises, she became persona non grata.

How disgraceful.

In fairness, as the following links attest, we here at NewsBusters have also paid a lot of attention to Sheehan since August 1, 2005. Yet, unlike those we analyze, and, often, critcize, we haven't forsaken Cindy when she attacked Democrats: