Looky here. Surprised? Absolute dearth of US coverage WRT Basra debacle:

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=british+basra&um=1&sa=N&tab=wn

It was mentioned here the other day that British troops are in real trouble there, and a disastrous pullout may be necessary.

notice how there is almost NO US media talking about this

can't imagine why....

cable so only get networks)

Death toll is over 500 and they say over 80% of the town is gone. People are being left buried in the rubble. It is catastrophic and all we get here is a ticker comment.

And the dam which is about to blow, not a word on MSM.

Unless one pays attention to the foreign press, there is almost complete silence about Iraq.

Maybe too much info?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1625893

that Oped doesn't mention it.

and just about NOBODY is discussing the soldiers' oped, as opposed to OHanlon/Pollack.

wasn't about Basra, but something seen more in the NYT, yet no one follows up on that editorial?
Very strange, or telling, imo.

sort of like all the media calling all the insurgents "al qaeda"

beyond belief how the stenography continues, and that's about the best they get. I'm sure you saw how they distorted what Hillary said about the surge "working"

well, 'journalists,' how's that surge working in, oh, say, BASRA?

how come you're not talking to the Brits, huh?

U.S. media curtail Iraq war coverage: study By Jim Wolf
Mon Aug 20, 6:09 AM ET



WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. media reporting of the war in Iraq fell sharply in the second quarter of 2007, largely due to a drop in coverage of the Washington-based policy debate, a study released Monday said.

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Taken together, the war's three major story lines -- the U.S. policy debate, events in Iraq and their impact on the U.S. homefront -- slipped roughly a third, to 15 percent of an index of total news coverage, down from 22 percent in the first three months of the year.

The study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism examined 18,010 stories that appeared between April 1 and June 29. Its "News Coverage Index" encompasses 48 outlets, including newspapers, radio, online, cable and network television.

The project is a research group studying and evaluating press performance. It describes itself as nonpartisan, nonideological and nonpolitical. The index is designed as an audit of a broad cross-section of U.S. news media.

The 2008 presidential campaign -- with its crowded field for the Democratic and Republican party nominations -- emerged as the top story in U.S. media in the second quarter, overtaking the Iraq policy debate, the biggest thread of the three Iraq-related storylines, the survey found.

Attention to the war dropped in all five media sectors surveyed. Network evening news, the sector that gave the war the greatest share of attention in the first quarter, scaled back more than 40 percent, from 33 percent in the first quarter to 19 percent in the second, the study showed.

On cable television, another leader in first-quarter coverage, the slide was nearly as great, from 23 percent of news reported to 14 percent -- a drop of 39 percent, the project said.

The bulk of the fall took place after May 24, when Congress approved war funding without including troop withdrawal timetables. This was widely viewed by the media as a victory for President George W. Bush in a political battle with Congress sparked by his January 10 troop "surge" announcement.

"In the aftermath, the debate itself quieted, as did coverage," the report said.

News from inside Iraq in the media surveyed became even more focused on Americans rather than Iraqis in the second quarter, the study found.

Fully 55 percent of coverage about events on the ground dealt with U.S. combat and casualties, U.S. troop activities and soldiers charged with crimes, it said.





This is from Yahoo News.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,,2152463,00.html

I would think this is a critical piece of information. Is it being covered anywhere except England?

I get the Times, and my cable lets me watch BBC and Euronews. On the other hand it's very depressing sometimes.

The British are getting their hats handed to them at the moment.

when it was supposed to be a shining example of success. I think even the Admin was touting it as what Baghdad would eventually be.

here's today's google news on Basra:


less today than there was yesterday

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=basra&um=1&sa=N&tab=wn