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| Home Front: Politix |
| Major TV networks pull out of Iraq |
| 2008-12-29 |
| The United States' three top broadcast television networks have quietly stopped sending full-time correspondents to Iraq, industry watchers say. Neither ABC, CBS nor NBC have full-time reporters in Iraq, the first time in many years that none of the major networks were present in an ongoing conflict zone involving U.S. troops, The New York Times reported Monday. Representatives of the three networks declined to speak on the record to the Times about their news coverage decisions, but said anonymously they would continue to cover Iraq and that the staffing levels reflected an evolution of the Iraq storyline from one of covering violence to one about reconstruction and politics. "The war has gone on longer than a lot of news organizations' ability or appetite to cover it," said Jane Arraf, a former Baghdad bureau chief for CNN who has remained in Iraq as a contract reporter for The Christian Science Monitor. News industry sources told the newspaper the television networks are preparing to redeploy their reporting resources from Iraq to Afghanistan and Pakistan in the belief that U.S. President-elect Barack Obama will follow through on pledges to focus military efforts there. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #7 Um, "ability or appetite"? |
| Posted by: bradeous 2008-12-29 15:59 |
| #6 |
| Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC 2008-12-29 12:39 |
| #5 Well, I'll tell ya, Mahmoud. It's a dangerous world and there's always war going on in some hellhole someplace. I'm hoping the network sends me down to Aruba to do the background down there before Hugo and the Russians invade. War's hell, Mahmoud. And don't you forget it. Another Grey Goose, light on the ice... |
| Posted by: Grizzled War Correspondent 2008-12-29 12:25 |
| #4 Sorry excuses for Queslings if you ask me. |
| Posted by: .5MT 2008-12-29 12:18 |
| #3 Might be a lotta bartenders in the Green Zone will notice they're not getting the same kinda tips they used to get. |
| Posted by: Abu Uluque 2008-12-29 12:15 |
| #2 they don't have much work reporting how bad it is going so they have no interest. When the media pulls out looks like we won after all |
| Posted by: rabid whitetail 2008-12-29 12:06 |
| #1 The media declares their defeat and hastily withdraws to regroup for a 'push' in another theater. Isn't that what their |
| Posted by: P2k on holiday 2008-12-29 12:04 |