Media Matters: Press downplays Iraq during campaign season. Again.

[DeepModem Mom]

Press downplays Iraq during campaign season. Again.
by Eric Boehlert

MSNBC turbo talker Chris Matthews no doubt rattled some glasses amidst the Beltway cocktail circuit last week when he seemed to call out the press corps for turning its back on Iraq. "It is not on the tube," said Matthews incredulously of the ongoing conflict. "I watch the news; I don't see the war any more."

A review of network news logs proves Matthews was dead-on in his assessment; coverage is way down this month. Unfortunately, Matthews later misspoke when he suggested it's the American people who are bored with Iraq and that the press has simply responded to news consumers' lack of interest by cutting back on its war reporting. But there's no evidence that the American people are bored with the war. In fact, the issue of Iraq and the war was chosen by voters as "the most important issue facing this country today," according to the latest CBS/New York Times poll.

There is, however, ample evidence that the American media, on the eve of the crucial midterm elections, have lost interest in the chaotic saga, with network news coverage in recent weeks plummeting and Page One newspaper dispatches from Iraq growing sparse. The media fade has come at a perfect time for the White House as it attempts to shift voters' attention away from Iraq and move it over to the war on terror.

What's so startling is that we've seen this exact media retreat before -- during the fall of the 2004 campaign. Back then, when sustained, aggressive coverage of the unfolding chaos inside Iraq could have done real damage to the Bush/Cheney ticket, the press shifted its attention away from Baghdad. Instead of a summer of tenacious war coverage, Bush was blessed with a cable news agenda that focused on endless hurricane updates, Martha Stewart's legal woes, and the tawdry Laci Peterson trial. As pollster Peter Hart suggested at the time, any day between August 15, 2004, and October 15, 2004, that Iraq was not making headlines was a good day for the Bush campaign. Suffice it to say, Bush had a lot of good days that autumn....

http://mediamatters.org/columns/200609260008