Georgia Congressman Jack Kingston links to a Media Research Center study of coverage of the Iraq war by the three broadcast news networks. Sure, you knew it was bad, but MRC has the figures:
Network coverage has been overwhelmingly pessimistic. More than half of all stories (848, or 61%) focused on negative topics or presented a pessimistic analysis of the situation, four times as many as featured U.S. or Iraqi achievements or offered an optimistic assessment (just 211 stories, or 15%).
News about the war has grown increasingly negative.In January and February, about a fifth of all network stories (21%) struck a hopeful note, while just over half presented a negative slant on the situation. By August and September, positive stories had fallen to a measly seven percent and the percentage of bad news stories swelled to 73 percent of all Iraq news, a ten-to-one disparity.
Interesting. That coincides with the Democrats’ “Bush lied!” attack, and with the President’s precipitous fall in the polls.
Even coverage of the Iraqi political process has been negative. More stories (124) focused on shortcomings in Iraqs political process the danger of bloodshed during the January elections, political infighting among politicians, and fears that the new Iraqi constitution might spur more civil strife than found optimism in the Iraqi peoples historic march to democracy (92 stories). One-third of those optimistic stories (32) appeared on just two nights January 30 and 31, just after Iraqs first successful elections.
Few stories focused on the heroism or generous actions of American soldiers. Just eight stories were devoted to recounting episodes of heroism or valor by U.S. troops, and another nine stories featured instances when soldiers reached out to help the Iraqi people. In contrast, 79 stories focused on allegations of combat mistakes or outright misconduct on the part of U.S. military personnel.
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