Q: When are journalists not really journalists?

A: When they're left-fascist bullies trying to re-shape reality to fit their twisted world view.

No End to Media's Defeatism on Iraq

According to an ABC News/Time magazine survey of 1,700 Iraqi citizens, released in advance of historic parliamentary elections on Thursday, “surprising levels of optimism prevail in Iraq,” according to ABC’s polling director, Gary Langer. “Despite the daily violence there, most living conditions are rated positively, seven in 10 Iraqis say their own lives are going well, and nearly two-thirds expect things to improve in the year ahead.”

Of course, those optimistic Iraqis don’t watch ABC, CBS and NBC every night. A new Media Research Center study of network evening news coverage of Iraq during October and November found the networks maintained the same negative approach our team found during a review of Iraq news during the first nine months of 2005. In spite of a successful constitutional referendum in October, the start Saddam’s trial for mass murder, successful U.S. offensive campaigns along the Syrian border and the return of a number of cities and town to full Iraqi control, the networks continued to offer mainly downbeat coverage of the situation in Iraq.

MRC’s latest analysis focused on 324 Iraq stories aired on the three broadcast evening newscasts between October 1 and November 30. Unlike the earlier study, MRC found that the three newscasts did not provide relatively similar amounts of Iraq war news. The “CBS Evening News” led the way, airing 139 stories on Iraq -- 90 full reports, plus another 49 short items read by the anchor. “NBC Nightly News” aired 113 stories (81 full reports vs. 32 anchor briefs), while ABC’s “World News Tonight” aired only 72 Iraq stories in two months (49 full reports and 23 anchor briefs).
(Thanks to Human Events Online for the heads up.)