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NBC News correspondant Ashleigh Banfield has ripped television news networks, including her own, for their 'glorious' coverage of the Iraq war and lack of focus on international news overall. In a speech Thursday at Kansas State University, she also attacked NBC News for hiring right wing radio talk show host Michael Savage to do a show on MSNBC. Savage recently called Banfield a 'slut' after her reports portraying the radical Arab point of view.Banfield, who first won notoriety for her coverage from the World Trade Center on 9/11, might be in some trouble for her comments.In a statement issued in...

Footage of Iraqis toppling Saddam's statue in Baghdad got lots of media play, but footage of subsequent Iraqi discontent with U.S. occupation was invisible in a mainstream TV media bent on showing only what the Bush administration wants you to see.Did you see footage of the 300 Iraqi protesters who, for three days straight, demonstrated outside the U.S. military operations base in the Palestine Hotel, demanding that the U.S. leave Iraq? Or footage of the Army forcing the media away from the scene? How about footage of hundreds of Iraqis in the very square in Baghdad where Saddam's statue was...

Media Research Center analysts watched the war on ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, CNN and the Fox News Channel. Here are their grades for each network’s performance, followed by ratings for the best and worst network anchors, Baghdad reporters and embedded correspondents: • Grading the Networks: Fox News Channel (B) and CBS News (B-) received the best grades for war coverage that correctly portrayed the U.S. military effort as successful. FNC aided viewers by rejecting the standard liberal idea that objective war news requires an indifference to whether America succeeds or fails. Day after day, CBS’s Pentagon reporter David Martin gave...

While it only lasted about three weeks, the second Gulf War was an unqualified success. Jubilant Iraqis danced in the streets as U.S. military forces rolled into the center of Baghdad, while the dictator Saddam Hussein and his evil cohorts were, as General Tommy Franks put it on April 11, either dead or “running like hell.”      So what about TV coverage of the war? While the media covered many aspects of the war fairly well — reports from embedded journalists were refreshingly factual and were mostly devoid of commentary — television’s war coverage was plagued by the same problems...

MANHATTAN -- War's sobering realities never reached American TV screens during the recent U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, according to NBC News correspondent Ashleigh Banfield. "We didn't see what happen when Marines fired M-16s," Banfield said during a Landon lecture appearance today at Kansas State University. "We didn't see what happened after mortars landed, only the puff of smoke. There were horrors that were completely left out of this war. So was this journalism? Or was this coverage?" On the other hand, she said, many U.S. television viewers were treated to a non-stop flow of images presented by "cable news operators...

MANHATTAN -- War's sobering realities never reached American TV screens during the recent U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, according to NBC News correspondent Ashleigh Banfield. "We didn't see what happen when Marines fired M-16s," Banfield said during a Landon lecture appearance Thursday at Kansas State University. "We didn't see what happened after mortars landed, only the puff of smoke. There were horrors that were completely left out of this war. So was this journalism? Or was this coverage?"On the other hand, she said, many U.S. television viewers were treated to a non-stop flow of images presented by "cable news operators who...

By Tim Burt, Media Editor Published: April 25 2003 5:00 | Last Updated: April 25 2003 5:00 Greg Dyke, BBC director-general, has condemned US media coverage of the Iraq war and accused American broadcasters of "swapping impartiality for patriotism". Mr Dyke said yesterday that the corporation had been surprised and shocked by the tone of war reporting from leading US television and radio networks. In a speech defending the BBC's reporting of the conflict, Mr Dyke warned that the proliferation of US tele-vision stations had weakened the country's political coverage. "The effect of this fragmentation is to make government, the...

U.S. broadcasters' coverage of the Iraq war was so unquestioningly patriotic and so lacking in impartiality that it threatened the credibility of America's electronic media, the head of the BBC says. BBC Director General Greg Dyke singled out for criticism the fast growing News Corp's Fox News Channel, owned by media baron Rupert Murdoch, and Clear Channel Communications, the largest operator of radio stations in the United States, with over 1,200 stations, for special criticism. "Personally, I was shocked while in the United States by how unquestioning the broadcast news media was during this war," Dyke said in a speech...

BBC chief attacks U.S. media war coverage By Merissa Marr LONDON, April 24 (Reuters) - The head of the BBC launched a broadside against American broadcasters on Thursday, accusing them of "unquestioning" coverage of the Iraq war and blatant patriotism. BBC Director General Greg Dyke said many U.S. television networks had lacked impartiality during the conflict and risked losing credibility if they persisted with their stance. "Personally I was shocked while in the United States by how unquestioning the broadcast news media was during this war," Dyke said in a speech at a University of London conference. "If Iraq proved...

Group Praises CBS' Rather on War Coverage NEW YORK (AP) -- A conservative media watchdog has given Dan Rather a better grade for his war coverage than Fox News Channel.The veteran CBS anchorman has been a frequent target of the Washington-based Media Research Center, which keeps an eye out for any signs of liberal bias on television. But the group gave Rather a B-plus for his war work, while Fox News got a B."This is just on the war," Rich Noyes, the organization's research director, said Wednesday. "It's not a lifetime achievement award."Their grades were based largely on how positively...

Grading TV's War NewsFox News Channel and Embedded Reporters Excelled,While Peter Jennings and Peter Arnett Flunked By Brent Baker and Rich Noyes Executive Summary     While it only lasted about three weeks, the second Gulf War was an unqualified success. But what about TV coverage of the war? While the media covered many aspects of the war fairly well — reports from embedded journalists were refreshingly factual and were mostly devoid of commentary — television’s war news was plagued by the same problems detected during previous conflicts: too little skepticism of enemy propaganda, too much mindless negativism about America’s military...

<p>NEW YORK (AP) -- A conservative media watchdog has given Dan Rather a better grade for his war coverage than Fox News Channel.</p> <p>The veteran CBS anchorman has been a frequent target of the Washington-based Media Research Center, which keeps an eye out for any signs of liberal bias on television. But the group gave Rather a B-plus for his war work, while Fox News got a B.</p>

FOR EDUCATIONAL DISCUSSION ONLY. NOT FOR COMMERCIAL USE. The war report As coverage shifts to different fronts, we analyze strategies and declare the victors in the battle for TV news dominance DIANE HOLLOWAY 04/21/03 - The war report: Victors in the battle for TV news dominance Diane Holloway -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Monday, April 21, 2003 Here's the dilemma: After more than a month of nearly continuous viewing, people are growing weary of war coverage and hungering for news of other things — like the economy and the potential SARS plague. And yet a huge majority of the people in last week's survey...

<p>The system of embedding reporters with military units, while not perfect, worked better than anticipated. The Fox News Channel's unabashed cheerleading was in a class by itself, but the American media did lean toward a nationalistic view of the conflict. While the 1991 Gulf War is remembered as the ''CNN conflict'' that seemed to render newspapers obsolete, this was a true multimedia war. And finally, journalists should leave the prediction business to meteorologists.</p>

Contrary to the impression put about by foreigners, the American public can think for themselves There have been times, living in America of late, when it seemed I was back in the Communist Moscow I left a dozen years ago. Turn on the local all-news radio station, and between the war bulletins, there's Lockheed Martin running spots extolling its commitment to national security and American greatness.Switch to cable TV and reporters breathlessly relay the latest wisdom from the usual un-named "senior administration officials", keeping us on the straight and narrow.Everyone, it seems, is on-side and on-message. Just like it used...

  Sky's Chater in Baghdad ME AND SADDAM'S HEAVIES First light came with gunfire throughout the city.A fat, waxing American moon hung over Baghdad. The armoured wagons of the US Marine Corps surrounded our hotel, writes Sky's Baghdad correspondent, David Chater. The pools of burning oil had been extinguished...but fresh flames were being set by the looters.My last night in the Iraqi capital after three weeks of war.Paranoia punctuated the dawn drive westwards to Jordan.In the outskirts of the city, we passed a checkpoint still manned by the Iraqi militia.Then through the Coalition's surrounding chokeholds where all questions were...

Back from the front lines

STEPHEN THORNE Canadian Press Sunday, April 20, 2003 CREDIT: (CP /Stephen Thorne)   Canadian soldiers listen to a safety briefing prior to embarking on a live-fire exercise. The soldiers have watched developments in Iraq with longing, bitterness and disappointment. (CP /Stephen Thorne)   ADVERTISEMENT WAINWRIGHT, Alta. (CP) - Canadian soldiers have watched with longing, bitterness and disappointment as their American and British bretheren fought the Iraq war on television. More than 4,000 troops from across Canada are in the midst of a six-week, $35-million exercise in the rolling, barren prairie of eastern Alberta - their biggest in more than a...

<p>Perhaps the high point of cable-news channel MSNBC's war coverage came when a newspaper photo depicted Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld working in front of a television tuned to the network. For an outlet whose small audience until recently seemed to comprise mainly the joke writers at "Saturday Night Live," who relished poking fun at the troubled channel, it was something of a validation.</p>

I am having withdrawal pains with the end of the war. I miss seeing Greg Kelly riding around in his armored vehicle. I miss seeing Rich Leventhal with his troops. I miss Ollie North as he fit so well with the Marines with whom he was imbedded. I miss Col. Hunt and General McInerney and Bob Bevelaqua as well as General Scales and General Valleley. All of these men gave me good insight as to what was happening and kept my spirits up. It seems so dull going back to regular old news. I don't want another war, but I...

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff have been unhappy with the criticism of their war effort by former military men appearing on television. So am I, but for a different reason. The top people at the Pentagon are wondering why these ex-military talkers can't follow the company line on how well the war has been fought. I'm wondering why these spokesmen for militarism are on TV in the first place. Here's a list: Lt. Gen. Bernard Trainor, Maj. Gen. Robert Scales, Lt. Gen. Gregory Newbold, Maj. Gen. Don Shepperd, Gen. Barry McCaffrey, Maj....

NEW YORK, April 16 (UPI) -- Everybody's so envious of the Fox News Channel that they're hiring look-alikes to make people THINK they're watching Fox even if they're not. I'm not kidding. Joe Scarborough, the new right-wing tough guy on MSNBC, is a dead ringer for Bill O'Reilly, whose take-no-prisoners "The O'Reilly Factor" is the highest-rated Fox show and the bedrock on which the dominant Fox nighttime schedule is built. Scarborough even has the same bags under the eyes, the square jaw, and the tight-lipped "you're an idiot" manner of O'Reilly. Isn't this pathetic? People must be SCARED TO DEATH...

MSNBC Chief Goes from Scorning PatrioticCoverage to Hyping It     In a remarkable transformation, upon figuring out that appearing patriotic helps in the ratings, MSNBC chief Erik Sorenson has gone from disdaining pro-American patriotic programming to championing it.     In November of 2001, Sorenson grumbled that if you make “any misstep...you can get into trouble with these guys and have the Patriotism Police hunt you down." In a New York Times story he ridiculed those concerned about the tone of post-9/11 coverage: “These are hard jobs. Just getting the facts straight is monumentally difficult. We don't want to have to wonder...

O'REILLY 3.8 [RATING] HANNITY/COLMES 3.6 GRETA 3.1 SHEP 2.4 BRIT 2.1 LARRY KING 2.0 AARON BROWN 1.7 POKEMON 1.5 MSNBC 9 PM 1.1 MSNBC 8 PM .9

America's cable news channels have come a long way since the days of the staid newsreaders. But are we sacrificing too much news for entertainment? Blessed with good looks and a comfortable style, CNBC's anchor Brian Williams is upstaging the major-network image that newsreaders have to be old-school, veteran journalists. The challenge for the news networks is to balance the public desire for information with a tendency for excessiveness. --Associated Press n addition to changing the viewing habits of many Americans, the cable networks are also altering the definition of news, blurring that once clear line between entertainment and...

<p>A word about those embedded reporters in Iraq before they go back to wearing suits and ties.</p> <p>There are many who deserve to be remembered, including NBC's David Bloom, who died of a pulmonary embolism while reporting the war, and CNN's Walter Rodgers, who sometimes looked haggard and beat but who was on the job night and day sending back stories.</p>

Cable's War Coverage Suggests a New 'Fox Effect' on Television By JIM RUTENBERG The two commentators were gleeful as they skewered the news media and antiwar protesters in Hollywood. "They are absolutely committing sedition, or treason," one commentator, Michael Savage, said of the protesters one recent night. His colleague, Joe Scarborough, responded: "These leftist stooges for anti-American causes are always given a free pass. Isn't it time to make them stand up and be counted for their views?" The conversation did not take place on A.M. radio, in an Internet chat room or even on the Fox News Channel. Rather,...

Viewers Flee ABC News and CBS News Did CBS really think it would benefit from letting Dan Rather be a useful idiot for Saddam Hussein? Does ABC really think Americans want to watch its foreign, blatantly anti-American anchorman Peter Jennings? Too bad for them that the people are voting with their feet, their wallets and their remote controls. In an astonishing break from the past, viewership of these networks' evening news shows has actually declined during this wartime. Only NBC, which has a cable operation and has long been the least offensive of the former "Big Three" networks, registered a...

Fox News Channel anchorman Shepard Smith doesn't apologize for his network's lack of ABC-style anti-Americanism. "I don't think there is ever a time when patriotism is a bad thing. Ever. I don't care what sort of mistakes, I will defend it," he says in this week's issue of Broadcasting & Cable magazine. Smith notes that "we were Americans before we were journalists. I think I can be American and still report factually. "If someone suggests that I can't be objective, is that like suggesting I can't be objective in covering racial issues because I'm white or I can't be objective...

April 13, 2003 The Spoils of War Coverage HOULD we never have watched at all? So Barbara Bush had instructed us in a "Good Morning America" interview showcased the day before the war began. The president's mother told Diane Sawyer she would watch "none" of TV's war coverage because "90 percent" of it would be speculative. Mrs. Bush continued: "Why should we hear about body bags and deaths and how many, what day it's gonna happen? . . . It's not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?" ReutersReporters await word of Pfc. Jessica...

April 14, 2003 Nightly News Feels Pinch of 24-Hour NewsBy BILL CARTER ith the most televised war in history winding down, executives at TV news organizations are noticing one startling detail in how Americans are watching the coverage: viewers are increasingly tuning out the broadcast networks' evening newscasts. The ratings for the nightly newscasts of Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw and Peter Jennings have surged in past crises. But early in the the war in Iraq, they did not. During previous periods of intense news interest, most recently in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, viewers have...

CNN reporter Brent Sadler traveling on a road very near Tikrit. The retired military officer in the studio keeps telling him to be careful. I find these live shots very nerve-wracking. It seems rather foolish for a reporter to be doing this, considering that Tikrit is a Saddam stronghold. Just a heads-up in case anyone is interested.

FOX NEWS GETS EXCLUSIVE RIGHTS TO NEXT FOUR U.S. WARS By William Grim Washington, D.C. -- In a first-of-its-kind deal, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld announced today that Fox News has won the bidding war for the exclusive broadcast rights for the next four wars to be fought by the United States. Although details of the deal are classified as "Top Secret," this reporter has learned that Fox's winning bid was well in excess of nine figures. Lawrence Kropotkin, vice president of special programming at Fox, confirmed that the deal was the most expensive in the cable news channel's history....

TV Shows Weakened Iraq Defenses in Tikrit By NICOLE WINFIELD .c The Associated Press CAMP AS SAYLIYAH, Qatar (AP) - U.S. Marines were operating Sunday near the dusty desert town of Tikrit, a power center for Iraq's Sunni Muslim tribes that is believed to be the one of the last strongholds of fighters loyal to President Saddam Hussein, U.S. Central Command said. A task force from the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force was within about 35 miles of the town, approaching from the south, having ``moved north along Highway 1 to Tikrit from Samarra,'' said Lt. Mark Kitchens, a Central Command...

RIYADH, 13 April 2003 — The fall of Baghdad to American forces was met with feelings of betrayal, disbelief, and shock here in Saudi Arabia. Many Saudis are still trying to figure out how the capital could give in to the American forces without putting up any significant resistance. Unanswered questions loom in the minds of Saudis as to how it all happened. One theory is that Condoleezza Rice, in her meeting with Russian officials, was told that Saddam would be allowed to go into exile to Russia on condition that he ordered his officers not to resist and thus...

As printed in TV Guide:CHEERS to fine journalism on (or near) the front lines. Of special note: news vet Peter Arnett on MSNBC, ABC's bright young up-and-comer Richard Engel and CNN medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta, who maintained his composure as he watched a frontline surgical unit operate on a critically injured Iraqi POW. As posted on line today:CHEERS to fine journalism on (or near) the front lines. Of special note: ABC's bright young up-and-comer Richard Engel and CNN medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta, who maintained his composure as he watched a frontline surgical unit operate on a critically injured Iraqi POW.

SANAA, April 11 (KUNA) -- Some Yemenis who had sentiments of admiration for the deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, now have different feelings toward the man, whose statues were downed and his posters were beaten with shoes in public places in the Iraqi war-stricken capital Baghdad. Saeed Abdullah, 40, who manages a popular cafe in the heart of the Yemeni capital, said the sudden disappearance of Saddam has become the main topic of daily debates among his customers, and protested that these discussions often heat up and turn into quarrels. Hamdi Ahmad, a government employee, said, "our sentiments toward...

<p>The daily 9:30 a.m. EDT conference call among the top executives of CNN International in London, Hong Kong and Atlanta couldn't have been better timed on Wednesday. Dramatic pictures of a rope being slung over the head of a statue of Saddam Hussein were pouring in.</p>

War in Real Time The Heretical Housewife By: Jennifer King This current war is like no one we have ever seen before, mostly due to the advent of satellite videophones and embedded reporters. Right now, in real time, we see operations as they are happening, or shortly thereafter. It is incredibly fascinating, and gives most of us an opportunity to vicariously experience war far away from the depredations of the front. Once again, it is great to watch the “new media” at work, and to savor the tortured implosion of the old. During my weekend in NYC, I could only...

'Fox & Friends' On Cable Pulls More Viewers Than CBS's 'The Early Show' On Broadcast... FOX NEWS CHANNEL's 'Fox & Friends' beat CBS's The Early Show for the entire week of 3/31-4/4, research shows -- F&F averaged 2.905 million to CBS 2.796 million total viewers, marking the first time FOX NEWS cable ever topped a broadcast net in lucrative morning daypart... Developing...

Britain and the US beam 'Freedom TV' into Iraqi homes By Paul Waugh Deputy Political Editor 11 April 2003 George Bush and Tony Blair broadcast directly to the Iraqi people last night via a new television channel set up by US and British forces. "Towards Freedom TV", was beamed from a specially-equipped American aircraft as it flew over Iraq. It will transmit five hours of programming – spoken in Arabic or subtitled – every day, carrying everything from news bulletins,information about water supplies to arts features. It got off to an inauspicious start when power cuts in Baghdad ensured no...

Academics have expressed concern over coverage of the U.S. war in Iraq in numerous ways: from discussing the conflict in their classes to joining protests and taking out full-page advertisements in national publications such as the New York Times. Daniel Brumberg, a professor in the government department at Georgetown University, presented a study of Arab public opinion to a U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee in October 2002 detailing the effects an American-led war on Iraq might have. Brumberg said the flood of images on media networks Wednesday showing Iraqis rejoicing over the fall of Baghdad might have been partially motivated...

Leave it to a Georgia boy to go all the way to Iraq to act like a dog. A Bulldog, that is, and a good one, according to scores of Georgia fans. Capt. Chris Carter became the pride of the Bulldog Nation early Monday morning when a news crew filmed him and Col. David Perkins - two Georgia graduates with the Army's 3rd Infantry Division - unfurling a University of Georgia flag outside one of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's Baghdad palaces. Already the word "hero" had been attached to Carter's name. He led an effort to save an injured Iraqi...

<p>AN AMERICAN flag logo adorns the upper left corner of the screen. Dramatic stand-up-and-salute drumbeats pound away under regularly scheduled updates. Gung-ho, self-aggrandizing commentators behave like cheerleaders sans the pompons. Dissenting viewpoints get summarily crushed with the verbal equivalent of bunker-busting bombs.</p>

Foxa Americana By Rogel Alper America's Fox News network has been demonstrating since the start of the war in Iraq an amazing lesson in media hypocrisy. The anchors, reporters and commentators unceasingly emphasize that the war's goal is to free the Iraqi people from the tyranny of Saddam Hussein. The frequency, consistence and passion with which they use that lame excuse, and the fact that nearly no other reasons are mentioned shows that this is the network's editorial policy. The American flag lies in the upper left-hand corner of the screen, while the logo accompanying the programming is Operation Iraqi...

Rankings for Basic Cable NetworksBy The Associated Press Rankings for the top 15 programs on basic cable networks as compiled by Nielsen Media Research for the week of March 31-April 6. Each ratings point represents 1,067,000 households. Day and start time (Eastern) are in parentheses. 1. "The Fox Report With Shepard Smith" (Tuesday, 7:29 p.m.), Fox News Channel, 4.4, 4.72 million homes. 2. "The O'Reilly Factor" (Thursday, 8 p.m.), Fox News Channel, 4.3, 4.59 million homes. 3. "The O'Reilly Factor" (Tuesday, 8 p.m.), Fox News Channel, 4.0, 4.30 million homes. 4. "The Fox Report With Shepard Smith" (Tuesday, 7:06 p.m.),...

Global TV gives breathless play to Baghdad fall By Ben Berkowitz and Merissa Marr LOS ANGELES/LONDON, April 9 (Reuters) - Television stations around the world interrupted regular programs on Wednesday to show the same pictures of jubilant Iraqis destroying monuments to Saddam Hussein as U.S.-led troops swarmed across a mostly undefended Baghdad. Broadcasters across Europe, the Middle East and the United States spent hours showing live footage of ecstatic crowds in the Iraqi capital, widespread looting and a towering statue of Saddam being toppled with the help of the U.S. military. Even reporters who initially had been downbeat about the...

The View from CNN - (Hold mein Hell Hath No Furry Like Journalists Alert!)CNN LIVE ON LOCATIONMany Questions Remain in Deaths of JournalistsAired April 8, 2003 - 14:26 ETWOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: The two journalists who were killed today in that tank shell were killed at the Palestine Hotel. That's been a base for international journalists in Baghdad. Both of the dead were cameramen, one with Reuters, the other with Spain's Telecinco (ph). Three journalists were wounded in that same incident. The CENTCOM says American forces responding -- were responding to what they described as -- quote -- "significant fire"...

<p>Doha, Qatar -- Every recent war has created its share of media stars, but the most unlikely star to emerge from this one may be the quixotic Iraqi minister of information, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf.</p> <p>With a roguish grin and a twinkle in his eye, al-Sahhaf has remained utterly unruffled in the face of his government's seemingly imminent demise. In the process, he has gained his own cult following among many Arab television viewers.</p>

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