Touting Military Misdeeds, Hiding Heroes

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It may be weeks or longer before officials announce what, if any, charges will be filed stemming from allegations that U.S. Marines killed Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha last November. But the allegations themselves have triggered a frenzy of network news coverage over the past three weeks, much as did allegations of abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison back in 2004.

While ABC, CBS and NBC have chosen to highlight this potential scandal, a new Media Research Center study finds those same networks have given far less attention to the heroic deeds of the 20 members of the U.S. military who have received the highest recognition for bravery since the war on terror began. In fact, 14 of the country’s top 20 medal recipients have gone unmentioned by ABC, CBS and NBC.

MRC analysts tallied all stories regarding charges of U.S. military misconduct that aired on ABC, CBS and NBC’s morning, evening, primetime and late night news shows from May 17 through June 7, before the networks’ pessimism was interrupted by the successful termination of terrorist menace Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The analysts then searched those same shows for coverage of top medal recipients, starting in September 2001. They found that none of America’s heroes received anywhere near as much attention from the broadcast networks as TV gave the latest allegations of military wrongdoing – and many received no coverage at all….

For the complete report, go to MediaResearchCenter.org.