ABC's Nightline walks away from Iraq

http://mediamatters.org/columns/200711270003

Last Friday marked something of a milestone for ABC's widely acclaimed news program Nightline when it aired a detailed look at life inside the chaotic emergency room at the 28th Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad. The significance? It was the first time since July 18 that Nightline had broadcast a firsthand news report from Iraq examining the on-the-ground effects of the still-unfolding war there.

In the four-plus months in between, Nightline produced more than 230 separate news segments covering a kaleidoscope of topics, but just one was filmed in Iraq: a Green Zone-based profile of Gen. David Petraeus on the eve of his Capitol Hill testimony. As for the daily or weekly events of the war itself, for 18 straight weeks (or one-third of the calendar year), Nightline effectively walked away from Iraq. What took its place? Lots of Nightline reports on pets and pop music.

It didn't always used to be that way.

During the run-up to the war, Nightline host Ted Koppel was embedded with the Army's 3rd Infantry Division for a little over a month, reporting first from Kuwait, and then moving with the Army across the border into Iraq, before finally entering Baghdad, where he chronicled the fall of the city.

And the program's commitment remained long after the invasion. In January 2004, Koppel returned to Iraq with a Nightline crew of 14 and produced a week-long series about the war, which kicked off with an hour-long Nightline special. That spring, Koppel and Nightline made headlines when he committed to reading the names of the 721 U.S. soldiers who, at that point, had died in the war. The Sinclair Broadcasting Group, owners of several ABC affiliate stations, refused to air the program, calling Koppel's tribute a political act.

Ixnay on the Iraqnay.

Don

Carter presidency.

Koppel left and it got very fluffy. He's been doing good stuff on NPR and Discovery Channel.

no evidence to prove otherwise...