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TV Networks Scale Back Iraq War Coverage

Afghanistan becomes focus as US deaths fall, budgets drop

By Wesley Oliver, Newser Staff

Posted Dec 29, 2008 9:26 AM CST

(Newser) – Violence is down drastically in Iraq, but so is coverage of the conflict by ABC, NBC, and CBS, who no longer have full-time correspondents in the country, the New York Times reports. Instead, the networks are shifting their focus to Pakistan and Afghanistan. “Afghanistan was the forgotten war,” said one reporter. “Now it’s swapping places with Iraq.”

The three networks had devoted 423 minutes to Iraq during nightly newscasts through Dec. 19, down from 1,888 minutes in 2007. As budget pressures persist, networks have talked about sharing resources and dispatching reporters to Iraq when news warrants. Said a veteran correspondent: “The country is at war and there is not a correspondent to cover it. Sad.”

[Images (3)]

[Videos (1)]

[Quotes (4)]

Salt Lake Tribune reporter Matthew D. LaPlante, center left, and Iraqi photojournalist Bilal Hussein, center right, talk to other journalists outside the Ramadi Government Center in Iraq in 2005. (AP Photo/The Salt Lake Tribune, Rick Egan)

Iraq has been, according to some executives, the most expensive war ever for TV news organizations. Most of the costs go for the security teams that protect each bureau and travel with reporters. (Shutter Stock)

Representatives for the networks emphasized they would continue to cover the war and said staff adjustments reflected the evolution of the conflict in Iraq. (Shutter Stock)

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CNN maintains a presence in Iraq. (CNN Video)

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The war has gone on longer than a lot of news organizations’ ability or appetite to cover it. - Jane Arraf, correspondent

Viewers’ appetite for stories from Iraq waned when it turned from all-out battle into something equally important but more difficult to describe and cover.
- Jane Arraf, correspondent

You can imagine how much more tedious it would be to watch soldiers running meetings on irrigation. - Jane Arraf, correspondent

Americans like their wars movie length and with a happy ending. If the war drags on and there is no happy ending, Americans start to squirm in their seats.
- Mike Boettcher, correspondent

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TV Networks Scale Back Iraq War Coverage