Earlier this week, the Media Research Center released a new study documenting the fairly heavy coverage ABC, CBS and NBC have provided of yet-unproved claims that U.S. Marines engaged in a “massacre” in Haditha, Iraq last year. The study found those same networks have provided relatively paltry coverage of the select group of American heroes who’ve been given the military’s highest honors: the Distinguished Service Cross, the Navy Cross, the Air Force and the Congressional Medal of Honor.
Today’s Washington Times (Jennifer Harper) has a nice summary of our study’s key findings, plus some reaction from the multi-national force in Iraq. Excerpts from her article, “‘Bad News’ Rife in military coverage”:
From May 17 to June 7, NBC, CBS and ABC aired 99 stories — or 3½ hours of negative news coverage — on the ongoing investigation of U.S. Marines in the death of Iraqi civilians in Haditha in November.
However, from September 2001 to June 2006, the same networks broadcast just 52 minutes of positive coverage of the nation's top military heroes, such as U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Paul Ray Smith, who died while protecting 100 fellow soldiers during the battle for Baghdad's airport in April 2003, earning the Medal of Honor.
Nineteen other men received high honors — the Air Force and Navy crosses and the Distinguished Service Cross — yet 14 were never mentioned on the air, according to the MRC analysis....
The analysis examined Haditha coverage from May 17 to June 7, “before the networks’ pessimism was interrupted by the successful termination of terrorist menace [Abu Musab Zarqawi],” the study said. It also found that the networks used terms such as “Marine massacre” and “mass murder” to describe the Haditha incident, which is still under investigation by the Pentagon.
The MRC analysis noted that ABC News was the worst offender, airing 86 minutes of negative coverage, followed by NBC with 67 minutes and CBS with 58....
The trend has not gone unnoticed by the military. Major Gen. William Caldwell, a spokesman for the multinational force in Iraq, recently cautioned journalists not to muddle facts — such as confusing Haditha with a March 15 raid near Samarra in which Iraqi civilians died. That raid was investigated and found to be in accordance with standard rules of engagement.
“Recently there has been much attention in both the Western and Arabic media concerning reports of coalition soldiers killing innocent Iraqi civilians. Temptation exists to lump all these incidents together,” Gen. Caldwell said June 3. “However, each case needs to be examined individually.”
Such was the case, perhaps, when a grisly photo of blindfolded Iraqi civilians executed by local insurgents was used to illustrate Haditha coverage in the Times of London on June 1 and as an inspiration for a Chicago Sun-Times editorial cartoon. Both news organizations later apologized....
END of excerpt.
You can read the full MRC study, “Touting Military Misdeeds, Skipping Heroes” at www.mrc.org.
