On 'Nightline,' a Grim Sweeps Roll Call(Post Reporter rips ABC/Koppel)

Washington Post ^ | 04/28/04 | Lisa de Moraes

[Pikamax]

On 'Nightline,' a Grim Sweeps Roll Call

By Lisa de Moraes Wednesday, April 28, 2004; Page C01

ABC News's "Nightline" will devote its entire broadcast on Friday to reading the names of the more than 500 U.S. servicemen and servicewomen who have been killed in action in Iraq.

As anchor Ted Koppel reads the names for the entire half-hour, viewers will see photographs of those killed since March 19, 2003, as certified by the Defense Department.

In its announcement yesterday, ABC News said the program was its way of paying tribute to the dead. And "Nightline" executive producer Leroy Sievers called it the program's way to "remind our viewers -- whether they agree with the war or not -- that beyond the casualty numbers, these men and women are serving in Iraq in our names, and that those who have been killed have names and faces."

That is good to know because otherwise we might be left thinking that Friday's broadcast, which ABC will simulcast on its Jumbotron in New York's Times Square, is a cheap, content-free stunt designed to tug at our heartstrings and bag a big number on the second night of the May ratings race.

Koppel, also in the announcement, acknowledged that Memorial Day might have been "the most logical occasion" to do the program. Ya think?

"But we felt that the impact would actually be greater on a day when the entire nation is not focused on war dead," he said.

Ah yes, and, of course, Memorial Day falls outside the May sweeps, when viewer levels are used by the networks to set advertising rates. Memorial Day is also traditionally a day of very low television viewing. He forgot to mention that stuff.

Sievers and others we spoke with at ABC News insisted they did not realize that the May sweeps start tomorrow.

[NormsRevenge]

paying tribute to the dead?

with sweeps week coming?

yaaah , sure .. bastards

[cookcounty]

It's a good idea.

It would also be a good idea to read the names of all the victims of Saddam Hussein on Nightline. That would take up about 9 years by my estimate.

Yes DU Lurkers, I DO have a son who served in Iraq.

[FreedomCalls]

Sievers and others we spoke with at ABC News insisted they did not realize that the May sweeps start tomorrow.

Lies and the lying liers who tell them.

[Peach]

Thank your son for us.

Tell the DU'ers this (same thing was in the Washington Post some time ago but I don't have a link):

THE numbers are obviously inexact. But the new Iraq Human Rights Centre in Kadhimiya has calculated that more than 70,000 people would have died in the past year had Saddam [Hussein] still been in charge. Even if that is too high, UNICEF argued that sanctions were killing 5000 children a month. Liberation ended sanctions at once, so if UNICEF is right, that would be 60,000 lives saved in the past 12 months.

There is violence and there is progress in Iraq. Most visitors understand that, and most Iraqis are using their freedom well. Municipal elections have been held in 17 cities so far; according to Iranian-born author Amir Taheri, they have all been won by democratic and secularist parties. There are now more children in school and university than at any time in the past 20 years. There is not yet enough clean water or electricity, but there is more in more places than under Saddam.

There are 200 newspapers in Iraq, instead of the few that mouthed the ghastly Saddamite lies a year ago. Iraq's Mafia-style command economy is history and foreign capital has been rushing into the country. Many marsh Arabs are moving back to their traditional rivers, which are being reflooded after Saddam drained them in a brutal act of ethnic cleansing.

The more progress, the more violence to stop it. Mario Vargas Llosa has written of "the various sects and movements bent on provoking the apocalypse in order to prevent Iraq from soon becoming a free and modern country ... a perspective that rightfully terrifies and drives insane [Saddam's murderous] gangs [and al-Qa'ida's fundamentalist commandos]. All of them, totalling only a few thousand armed fanatics, but with extraordinary tools for destruction, know that if Iraq becomes a modern democracy, their days are numbered."

http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1125336/posts

[BlessedByLiberty]

Did anyone hear Glen Beck's show today? He had someone reading the names of the living soldiers. It was a nasty shot back at these libs.

[Mike Darancette]

Why aren't the Afghanistan dead being mentioned?

[jocon307]

"Sievers and others we spoke with at ABC News insisted they did not realize that the May sweeps start tomorrow"

That is probably the BIGGEST lie I have EVER heard.

[prairiebreeze]

"But we felt that the impact would actually be greater on a day when the entire nation is not focused on war dead," he said.

DING! DING! DING!

The Sweeps Week tie-in is secondary and only serves to provide convenient cover.

Koppel, it's time to start pricing pastures, bud.

Prairie

[hadaclueonce]

Tell us the names of all the Non-Iraqi's fighters that are there on their Quest ...that have went to their "heaven".

Then I might believe it is fair.

Not.

[IncPen]

Why aren't the Afghanistan dead being mentioned?

Why didn't Ted read the names of the 9-11 victims in this manner?

[bcoffey]

I say Koppel just wanted a 3-day weekend, so they recorded the "tribute" stuff earlier and will play it Friday night.

[Graybeard58]

I DO have a son who served in Iraq.

I have a son serving there now and he and I both feel pretty much the same as you do. It was a cheap shot by Kopple and served no purpose other than his own.

[cricket]

[paying tribute to the dead?

with sweeps week coming?

yaaah , sure .. bastards]

Double that. . .with a special thanks to these Liberals. Every day will bring a new low; and we can be continually amazed . . .

. . .at shock and awe - the Liberal way.

Think even the weather would be better without them.

[cricket]

"Sievers and others we spoke with at ABC News insisted they did not realize that the May sweeps start tomorrow"

Well they did not know the meaning of 'sweeps'. . .or realize it was 'May' and don't know tomorrow. . .from yesterday.

You are right; "Lies and the liars who tell them".

If you are a Liberal; this song is for you!

[wildbill]

This is a very thinly disguised attack on the war, the opening gun so to speak of the anti-war media.

They will try to make this war another VietNam because for many of them that anti-war movement was the defining moment of their lives.

[IncPen]

Can you possibly imagine anyone with even a passing familiarity with television NOT knowing that May is sweeps - and not planning their lives accordingly?

I see the left is becoming desperate in their need to destroy Bush and de-legitimatize 'his war'.

Good God, don't they realize what WE are up against in this war?

When I was at ABC, if it was a tight race, we would be denied July vacations (July being a wildcard month, to break a statistical 'tie' in the ratings, if needed)

If you work in TV, you simply have no outside life in the months of February, May, and November. It's a given, and it's planned for months in advance.

Their denial is absurd on its face.

[kabar]

Why aren't the Afghanistan dead being mentioned?

Because it doesn't fit the political agenda. The Left can't criticize Afghanistan because of the direct connection to 9/11. The Left wants us out of Iraq and the best way to do that is to appeal to public emotions. It is no accident that the draft and the photographing of the fallen arriving at Dover are now big Dem and media issues. It is the new antiwar movement coupled with the media's crass interest in ratings.

[billhilly]

" Lies and the lying liers who tell them."

Isn't it the "truth?" Conason and Lyons and Franken will be all over it. Fatty Moore will have a camera crew in Koppel's esophagus. DU will protest loudly.

[Waco]

Don't know the sweeps are at hand? Is that like a lady that doesn't know her next birthday is the 40th?