CHRIS WALLACE: It seemed to us that you hadn't been in the news much recently, which probably is a good thing from your point of view, since you came back from Washington in September. But we decided to check it out, and the Media Research Center says that the three network evening newscasts did 178 stories on Iraq in September, when you were here, that in October as the surge took hold there were 108 stories, and that in November that dropped to just 68. General, any thoughts about why success in Iraq isn't news here at home?
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Cynical folks, such as those of us here at NB, might think the MSM has buried the good news from Iraq because they don't want to run stories that would tend to reflect well on the Bush administration, the military and Republican candidates who have supported our efforts in Iraq.
But General Petraeus took the high road.
DAVID PETRAEUS: Clearly there are other more newsworthy items: the political campaign issues in the states understandably ; challenges in Pakistan and other places. And so, as you note, probably this is a sign of progress. In a sense, no news is good news. In fact actually there was one nightly news show a week or so ago that said that "the news from Iraq is that there is no news." There were no attacks in a certain area or something like this. And so, we're not reluctant to see that. The only reluctance would be that America continue to remember its soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and civilians who are serving out here in this very important endeavor.
