TV stations, Web sites exercise little restraint in Zarqawi coverage

[DeepModem Mom]

Baltimore Sun: TV stations, Web sites exercise little restraint
By David Zurawik and Nick Madigan
Sun reporters
Originally published June 9, 2006

As happened with the capture of Saddam Hussein and the "shock and awe" bombing of Baghdad, some American news organizations yesterday covered the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi with marked enthusiasm, verging on inappropriate glee.

Perhaps the tone was set by the cheering and sustained applause by Iraqis at the Baghdad news conference announcing al-Zarqawi's death. But American television didn't have to follow that gung-ho lead to the extent that some channels did throughout the day.

The 24-hour cable news channels and their Web sites were the worst offenders, though other news organizations shared that lack of proportion and restraint....

***

On Fox News Channel's Fox & Friends, anchorman Chris Wallace said of al-Zarqawi, "This is the baddest man in the world - we shouldn't forget that."...(Visitors to CNN's website) were urged to play video of the bombing run that killed al-Zarqawi, with U.S. Gen. George W. Casey's voice walking them through the landscape: "The lead aircraft is going to engage momentarily with a 500-pound bomb on the target." It was the most-played video of the day at www.cnn.com.

"I think it's important for the American media not to turn this into a Star Search kind of a thing where you have one super-celebrity in al-Zarqawi and you make a huge deal out it, when the fact is that the insurgency is so much more complicated," said Philip Seib, author of Beyond the Front Lines: How the News Media Cover a World Shaped by War....

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/bal-te.media09jun09,0,3053980.story?coll=bal-news-nation

[meti57b]

1. Pretty much like the day we won the Iraq war, accomplished our mission,

and pulled down the Saddam Hussein statue. Lemme see, that was back in 2003?

[greekspeak]

4. Be fair now...we've won the war since then several times

We won the time all those people were on TV with purple fingers. And that other time with the purple fingers. And that time we got the leaders to form their government. And the other time. And the next time they did it. Oh, and what about that picture that guy running for office took of the peaceful Baghdad street with all the Turkish writing on it? And then Our Lord and Savior His Holiness Jorge Pissypants made that turkey. There was the day they found that weapon of mass distruction/weather truck thing. God we have won so many times! Thank GOD for Poland. :sarcasm:

[KurtNYC]

5. Also...

"killed the number 2 guy in Al Quada": 6 times
"reached a turning point" in the Iraq war: 8 times
"tightened the noose" around OBL, etc: ~5 times
"re-doubled our efforts": 4 times

[file83]

2. What's even more telling is how susceptible many DU'rs were

to this TV reporting yesterday - a lot of them were in a fog of mindless celebration over one man's death simply because they were told to by the media.

Some haven't learned a fucking thing over these last 3 years. Some will never learn, I guess.

[hadrons]

3. seems like its the only way they can get it up

[Thickasabrick]

6. LOL....a change from masturbating to pics of Cheney and Bush

[IndianaGreen]

7. They are part of the White House propaganda machine

Amazingly, one ABC correspondent admitted tonight that Zarqawi was only responsible for a small proportion of the violence in Iraq.

I wonder who will be the new Emmanuel Goldstein...

[nealmhughes]

8. We must have 24 hours of HATE!

Two minutes is not enough.

[HuffleClaw]

9. its ONLY ok to be ghoulish when its a 'bad guy' that is dead

no showing dead women and children or americans.