Counting to 4,000
A new Pew Research Poll notes that only 28% of Americans could correctly identify the number of troops that have died in Iraq, which stands just shy of 4,000. This is an enormous drop in awareness about the human toll of this war; only seven months ago, in March 2007, 54% were familiar with the death count.
The drop, however, can be accounted for. The Project for Excellence in Journalism recently found that coverage of Iraq has fallen from 15% of total news coverage last July to 3% in February, so it’s not just the people who have lost interest in the war. It’s the journalists, too.
The link above has a great chart that shows - via a squiggly line that resembles an EKG heart monitor - the percentage of news coverage devoted to the war in Iraq.
Another question the survey asked: “Who is Oprah Winfrey backing for president?” 84% of Americans nailed that one.
March 13th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
Jonathan, why do you think the journalists have “lost interest in the war”? Could it be because conditions have improved significantly (they’re still not all that great, but remarkably superior to a year ago)?..they haven’t lost interest in the war per se, they’ve just lost interest in the negative aspects because, quite simply, there really haven’t been much negative aspects to come out of the war for the last 6 months or so.
Seriously, even if you are against the war (and I have no idea if you are or not), you can’t deny the plausibility of the argument I have brought forth. Let me ask you a question: when was the last time any of us saw a story in the New York Times about coalition soldiers saving lives, building new schools, or providing security for hundreds of thousands of innocent people?
Reporting stories that present the war in any sort of positive light gives credibility to the Bush Administration and the surge policy, and the media will not do it; it would rather turn a blind eye to any sort of progress.
March 13th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
Ah, well, what I said above and election season, of course. Everything else takes a back seat. However, reporting good news about the war would not be good for the Dems in the election season, hence the lack of “news”.