THE MEDIA'S IRAQ DRAWDOWN

We have been reporting for months how the mainstream media in the United States has backed away from covering events in Iraq. Now there is proof we were right all along.

The media’s Iraq drawdown.»
Eric Alterman and George Zornick document the evidence of the media’s declining coverage of the Iraq war.

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/03/27/the-media%e2%80%99s-drawdown-in-iraq/

They note:
– A study by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism found that in all of 2007, the topic of the Iraq war occupied an average of 15.5 percent of the “newshole” in the media; in the last quarter it fell to nine percent, and then to 3.9 percent in the first quarter of 2008.

– The broadcast networks’ nightly shows devoted more than 4,100 minutes to Iraq in 2003 and 3,000 in 2004, before going down to 2,000 a year, according to Andrew Tyndall, who monitors the broadcasts and posts.

– Only two newspapers noted the 4,000th combat death of a U.S. soldier in Iraq.