Last Tuesday, NewsBusters Editor-at-Large Brent Baker noted that seven soldiers who had been killed the week prior in Afghanistan received just 1/20th of the evening newscast time that ABC, CBS, and NBC devoted to the passing of pop star Michael Jackson.
The same day, NewsBusters Publisher and Media Research Center President Brent Bozell slammed the broadcast networks in a statement: "There is no justification for determining that the death of a celebrity over a week ago merits 20 times more news coverage than the tragic deaths of American soldiers in Afghanistan."
Perhaps in some measure reacting to the criticism, CBS's "Sunday Morning" program yesterday aired a nearly 3-minute-long opinion segment featuring Martha Gillis, whose nephew, 1st Lt. Brian Bradshaw, was killed on June 25 in Afghanistan.
In the video, Gillis criticized the media for its lack of coverage [audio available here]:
My 24-year-old nephew Brian Bradshaw was killed by an IED in Afghanistan on June 25, but you'd never have known it from the national media. I cannot tell you how that silence added to the pain of losing this bright, funny, thoughtful young man....
[...]
I wonder, how many other people in Maine or Texas or New York City would also have honored Brian and the other soldiers who have died in the last two weeks if the media had simply let them know.
Somebody's little boy, all grown up, died today. Someone's little girl found out today that Daddy is never coming home. That news is hard to bear.
When the nation they died for barely notices, it's crushing.
