Topic: The Media
"If our boss can do it, why can't you network guys do it?"
An interesting post regrading the news media from Rick in Atlanta.
The question "Why don't we ever see Peter Jennings visiting Iraq" may not be burning holes in the brains of the average American viewer, but it seems to be quietly eating its way through the Bush administration. Who knew?
There are those in the White House who have noticed that whenever Jennings visits some city like Atlanta, we then tend to see all sorts of cute stories, many if not most of them positive, that otherwise never would have made network air. So why, the reasoning seems to go, instead of dwelling on all this violence, don't the network anchors visit Iraq and show America the 95% positive and good things going on there?
(Okay, other than the obvious counter argument that the networks have legions of journalists on the ground in Iraq already, might one wonder how positive the Iraqi situation would look if the anchors were required to fly in with lights turned off, as the president did? Just pondering here.)
You can read this with pictures at:
No News Anchors In Iraq Has White House Troubled
Peter Johnson, USA TODAY, updared December 1, 2003
As U.S. casualties - 79 in November - and controversy over the war in Iraq mount, why has no network news anchor set foot in Iraq since September, when CBS' Dan Rather last visited?And so on, with many quotes from the talking heads...
It is a sore spot between the Bush administration and network news executives. Now that President Bush and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., have made Thanksgiving trips to Iraq, insiders predict networks may return some of their big guns to Iraq in coming weeks to gauge the situation for themselves.
Executives at NBC, ABC and CBS argue that correspondents in Iraq are putting the story in perspective and that millions of Americans who watch everything from NBC's Today to The CBS Evening News to ABC's Nightline are getting an accurate picture.
But the Bush administration says positive stories from Iraq are drowned out by a daily drumbeat of bombings and attacks on U.S. troops. If news divisions sent their anchors to Iraq and let them spend time there, they might report a different - and more positive - story.
Ambassador Paul Bremer, who heads the U.S. rebuilding effort in Iraq, "never misses an opportunity to invite every anchor to come over. It is a staple of every interaction," coalition spokesman Dan Senor says. "Ninety-five percent of this country is returning to normal. In order to capture that story, you have to travel and invest time."
From March through October, ABC, CBS and NBC combined devoted 47 hours, more than one-quarter of their weekday nightly newscasts, to Iraq, network news analyst Andrew Tyndall says. NBC spent 1,037 minutes; ABC, 930; and CBS, 873.
"It's not automatic that anchors should be in Iraq, but it's not out of left field to ask why they are not there," Tyndall says. Almost 30 million viewers get their news each night from the three broadcasts - the biggest source of news in America.
NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw has not been to Iraq since July, but producer Steve Capus says, "I reject the characterization that we only do negative stories." He cites, among others, stories on cement and water treatment plants working again. "Our report runs the gamut: good, bad and otherwise."
Posted by Alan at 13:38 PST
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Updated: Tuesday, 9 December 2003 13:46 PST
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