Minutes Dwindle for Networks' War Coverage

Bureaus cut amid financial concerns; political primary blots out other stories
By Michael Foreman,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 23, 2008 1:45 PM CDT
Minutes Dwindle for Networks' War Coverage
With Iraq violence on the decline, networks focused on the heated Democratic primary.    (Getty Images)

Middle East correspondents are struggling to get stories on the nightly news as TV networks scale back war coverage, the New York Times reports. With violence in Iraq declining and the US public tiring of an open-ended conflict, network execs have focused on hot topics like the contentious presidential primaries. Keeping, and securing, bureaus in violent areas is also quite costly.

“We can’t afford to maintain operations in Iraq and Afghanistan at the same time,” said CBS's chief foreign correspondent. “It’s so expensive and the security risks are so great that it’s prohibitive.” Though coverage of the war in Afghanistan actually increased this year, no US network keeps a full-time correspondent in the country. (More media coverage stories.)

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