Fallen To - Networks Switch Off Iraq War

Although the Iraq War was regarded as "Story of the Year" on television newscasts in every year from 2003 through 2007 (except in 2005 when Katrina took over), coverage "came to a screeching halt last September," according to Andrew Tyndall, who covers the broadcast networks' nightly news programs on his website, The Tyndall Report. The September date marks the time Gen. David Petraeus told Congress that the "surge" was working. While the nightly newscasts had devoted an average of 26 minutes a week to the war during the previous five-year period, the number has now fallen to less than 6 minutes on all three network newscasts combined, Tyndall reports. "It has been like turning off a light switch," he commented. He pointed out that war coverage "is an expensive, dangerous unpleasant business" and "unpopular" with the programs' audiences. He suggested that the American public appears to agree with presidential candidate John McCain that the American public doesn't care whether troops remain in Iraq -- only whether they're being wounded or killed there.

09/07/2008

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