As monthly reported troop deaths began falling in Iraq a few months ago, CNN's Robin Wright was in an early October interview with the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz on CNN's "Reliable Sources" that was blogged on by NB's Noel Sheppard.
In it, Wright explained why September's US troop death figure, at the time the lowest in over a year, did not deserve significant news coverage:
We've had five years of the Pentagon telling us there is progress, there is progress. Forgive me for being skeptical, I need to see a little bit more than one month before I get too excited about all of this.
Okay, maybe Ms. Wright can work up some "excitement" about this (Source: icasualties.org) --
Since Wright expressed her skepticism over September, monthly US troop deaths have dropped into the realm of the lowest on record. Only six other months in the past 4-1/2 years (June 2003, August 2003, September 2003, February 2004, March 2005, and March 2006) had fewer fatalities. Though it's very early, it's possible that December's figure could be the lowest ever.
"Excited" yet, Robin? Perhaps this will get you going (Source again: icasualties.org) --
With about three weeks remaining in the quarter, hostile deaths (63 thus far) are on track to be the lowest in nearly four years.
Of course, we all would prefer that the numbers come down to zero. But the fact is that troop deaths have fallen to a level that is now much closer to zero than the figures reported in the early part of this year.
A Google News Search on "Iraq War Casualties" (without quotes) ends up only listing articles about polls and command changes. The one Reuters article about casualties only reports cumulative totals since the beginning of the war.
So now that it appears to be the trend she was looking for, why isn't Robin Wright, or anyone else in Old Media, "excited" enough to report the specifics?
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
