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Thread 9353

Thread ID: 9353 | Posts: 2 | Started: 2003-08-28

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Rudel [OP]

2003-08-28 05:49 | User Profile

Is it just me or did the underreporting game of the main US media vs. the casualties in Iraq start in the earnest? For days now, barring exceptional events, war action and casualties in Iraq are burried in the third-fourth page of the main newspapers/web sites, if reported at all. For example - today (Wednesday 8-27) two soldiers were killed in Iraq by hostile fire. Is this newsworthy? I would think so. Nevertheless, here are the headlines of the main news web sites from Wednesday 6 pm EST:

MSNBC:

MORE TOP STORIES

Main Story: US considers UN Role in Iraq Other top stories: • 7 die in Chicago workplace shooting • U.S. rules out formal N. Korea talks • Common cancer gene hikes risk • EPA issues ‘Clean Air’ exemptions ALSO IN THE NEWS • Oklahoma charges MCI, Ebbers • Lawsuits challenge overtime rules • Yankees routed for 2nd straight night • Priest charged in death of Pitt player

CNN:

Main Story: Gunman kills six coworkers

YAHOO:

• U.S. weighs American-led U.N. Iraq force • Investigator rips shuttle Columbia report • Poll: Dean leads Kerry by 21 points in N.H. • IMF warns U.S. over mounting budget deficit • RIAA unveils music piracy tracking methods
• Archeologists find outline of Jamestown fort
• Pacers fire Isiah Thomas

FOX: Main Story: No commandments (ten commandments removed in Alabama) Other: • U.S. Weighs U.N. Command in Iraq • Seven Killed in Warehouse Shooting • Hamas Rejects Arafat Cease-Fire Call • 16 Hurt in School Bus Accident • Group: D.C. to Limit Financial Privacy • Arnold Gives Positions to Fox News • U.S.: No Bilateral Talks With N. Korea • Dotson Indicted for Dennehy's Murder • Dems Exhausted by Forum Schedule • Oklahoma Files Charges Against MCI

Not a single one mentions the soldiers in the headlines, and one must dig really hard between the Jessica Linch honorable discharge and Carlton Dotson's murder to find some scant details on the latest action in Iraq. I was not around during the Vietnam war, but I bet the media was not pulling punches on that one. Since we know who controls the media and for whom the war is fought, this underreporting would hardly come as a surprise. If you can't beat them - underreport them?

MadScienceType

2003-08-28 16:23 | User Profile

For all the whining Rush Limbaugh does about the negative reporting of the war, the coverage seems restrained, to say the least.

I've noticed the same trend as you, that of slowly, day by day, pushing the Iraq casualties farther and farther back in the paper. As you noted, right now, such stories are several pages in. By this time next year, I expect them to be found after the classified ads, if they're reported at all.

In addition to underreporting, another trick is to minimize the number of casualties caused by hostile fire.

For example, I read about a convoy being attacked by the ususal RPGs and small-arms fire. The driver of a vehicle was killed and it crashed, also killing another occupant. The driver was considered to have been killed through hostile fire, while the other occupant was officially killed in a "traffic accident."

Neat, huh?

Another mordibly funny statement I heard the other day was of a KIA caused by a "non-hostile" gunshot wound. What in the He-double-hockey-sticks does that mean?

I guess it's either a friendly fire incident, or, more ominously, a suicide, though I suppose it could have been a self-inflicted ticket-home wound that worked a little too well.