On Monday's World News, ABC anchor Charles Gibson segued from coverage of the Israel-Hezbollah battle to remind viewers of how badly things are going in Iraq. Over an on-screen graphic of the numbers of civilians and military members killed in Iraq compared to the Israel-Hezbollah conflict, Gibson announced: “Well the focus of the world, in recent days, has been on Israel and Lebanon. And attention has been diverted from Iraq. But it should be noted that in the thirteen days since the Israeli/Lebanese crisis began, more Iraqi civilians have died [540] than Lebanese [392]. And more U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq these past two weeks [24] than Israeli soldiers have died in their conflict [22]. Also somewhat overlooked is the fact that Saddam Hussein has been on a two-week hunger strike. ABC's Terry McCarthy is in Baghdad tonight....”
Of course, it was an editorial decision by ABC News to “divert” its focus from Iraq and if the number of deaths in Iraq should be newsworthy, ABC at anytime can decide to give Iraq more time and a higher priority than the war between Israel and Hezbollah.
