Bias in Media Coverage of Iraq, You Say

Thomas Sowell has an interesting piece in the Baltimore Sun (soul-sucking registration required) about obvious bias in media coverage of the Iraq war. Sowell suggests that the blind focus on American casualties without commensurate coverage of US successes is a recipe for defeat.

If a battle ends with Americans killing a hundred guerrillas and terrorists, while sustaining 10 fatalities, that is an American victory. But not in the mainstream media. The headline is more likely to read: "Ten More Americans Killed in Iraq."

This kind of journalism can turn victory into defeat. Kept up long enough, it can even end up with real defeat, when support for the war collapses at home and abroad.

One of the biggest American victories during World War II was called "the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot" because American fighter pilots shot down more than 340 Japanese planes over the Mariana Islands while losing just 30 American planes. But what if our current reporting practices had been used back then? The story, as printed and broadcast, could have been: "Today, 18 American pilots were killed and five more severely wounded as the Japanese blasted more than two dozen American planes out of the sky." A steady diet of that kind of one-sided reporting and our whole war effort against Japan might have collapsed.

Sowell's comments are especially appropriate today. Yesterday, President Bush gave a press conference and urged patience in the Iraq effort and that the elections were coming. The overwhelming media attention went to the helipopter crash that killed 31 marines in western Iraq. Believe me, Base10 hates the death of any soldier, but this was an aircraft accident not combat fatalities. Nevertheless here are some headlines from yesterday and today:

Iraq insurgents mount deadly attacks as Bush hails 'historic' vote - AFP (Base10 particularly likes the scare quotes around "historic" on this one).

Anti-Vote Violence in Iraq Is Intensifying, Latest Data Shows - NY Times

31 Americans Die as Marine Copter Goes Down in Iraq - NY Times

37 Troops Die on Deadliest Day in Iraq - ABC News

By the way, Sowell also uses one of Base10's favorite expressions: "The Fourth Estate sometimes seems more like a Fifth Column."
- posted by Base10 @ 10:50 AM