The Iraq War Fading From View: Should We Care?
News coverage from Iraq has been diminishing steadily over time. The mounting silence has become so pronounced during "the surge" period that, almost unbelievably, we now are at a point where the war has damn near dropped from sight, airborne loafers aside. There are plenty of numbers to back up the claim. The question is this: so what?
After nearly six years of the war, the reporters are still embedded, still sheepishly pliant, but nowadays their ranks have thinned considerably. A recent study in the Columbia Journalism Review states: "Per studies from the Project for Excellence in Journalism, the war regularly wins less than two percent of the weekly U.S. news hole," The problem, according to the article, is "partially logistical: on-the-ground reporting from the country is both exceptionally expensive ... and incredibly dangerous (Iraq, for the sixth year in a row, has been named the deadliest country in the world for journalists)." As a result, however, the "story of Iraq is... fading generally from our collective conscience."
Source: Columbia Journalism Review, December 23, 2008
There have been plenty of big stories dominating the headlines lately; Obama's campaign and election, the collapse of the economy, the new season of "Lost," but for crying out loud this is a war! A bloody, expensive, stalemate war that has lasted longer than WWII. It should be one of the most important stories of the day, it should be a coveted assignment for the young hot shot journalist looking to make a name. Yet we get next to nothing, nary a peep these days from our hired detectives on the scene. The news establishment has not exactly excelled in its role as the eyes, ears, nose and throat of "we the people" in Iraq. OK. That begs the tough question: given the painful national experience of Vietnam, keeping in mind the controversial history of the press and television in that war, considering where things stand in Iraq today, is it really a bad thing that the media news outlets have so obediently towed the official line in Iraq? A line that amounts to, arguably, out and out censorship in many cases? It goes right to the heart of the matter in the debate over the role of the free press as the peoples' agents of accountability in an open democratic society. If nothing else, it's chewy fodder for a great classroom discussion on ethics and realpolitik.
Happy New Year!