In his column today, Jeff Jacoby looks at MSM news coverage of two stories: Death toll reaches 2,000 soldiers and Iraqis approved their constitution.
Which story do you think got more coverage?
The MSM has relentlessly brought us stories about the tragic loss of life our military is suffering in Iraq. We have not seen many stories regarding the successes resulting from the efforts of the brave men and women who are putting their lives on the line. The approval of the Iraqi constitution is a significant development regarding the War in Iraq. This is information people need to have before they can make an informed opinion about whether we should be fighting over there or not.
Time for me to get grounded in reality… I called three of my friends who don’t pay much attention to news or politics for perspective. Like most Americans, they pay more attention to sports, or business, or living life than they do to politics and current events, but they all vote. I asked my friends two questions and found out that none of them knew the Iraqi constitution was approved, but all three knew that the death toll of our military is over 2,000.
I asked my wife to do the same thing with her friends. She refused. She said if she calls her friends, she is going to talk about the kids, reading books, scrapbooking, or something else.
My little poll is anecdotal and has no scientific validity, but I would be willing to bet the results would hold up on a larger scale. Jacoby hits the nail right on the head with the last paragraph of his column:
Poll after poll confirms the public’s low level of confidence in mainstream media news. Gallup recently measured that confidence at 28 percent, an all-time low. Why such mistrust? The media’s slanted coverage of Iraq provides a pretty good clue.
