Civilian Casualties: counting the minutes


November 24, 2001


BOB GARFIELD: We're back with On the Media. I'm Bob Garfield.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: And I'm Brooke Gladstone. In a Gallup poll released this week, Americans were asked to assess the performance of various institutions handling the war. At the top of the list was President Bush with an 89 percent approval rating followed closely by Secretary of State Colin Powell. Homeland Security Chief Tom Ridge managed an unimpressive 60 percent. Bringing up the rear were the news media with the pathetic approval rating of 43 percent. And yet a poll conducted just after September 11th gave the media a robust 89. Why the slide? The Gallup analyst suggests that the role of reporters as skeptics and bearers of bad news have put them in direct conflict with the public mood.

BOB GARFIELD:Some of that bad news has involved the coverage of civilian casualties in Afghanistan, and with precious little word from the Pentagon and all too much from the Taliban, the networks have been hard-pressed for accurate numbers. The Taliban of course are hostile to Western press except when showing off ghastly images for consumption on the infidels' homefront. And at least one conservative press watchdog believes that at least one news organization is playing into the enemy's hands. The Media Research Center in Washington tallied the number of minutes the three major networks have devoted to the subject of civilian deaths. Coverage on CBS amounted to 4 minutes, 17 seconds. NBC's total was 8 minutes, 9 seconds. But leading the pack with 15 minutes, 44 seconds was ABC. Media Research Center founder Brent Bozell charges ABC with coverage that is dangerously out of line.

BRENT BOZELL: Number one, for a reason I don't quite understand, ABC is obsessed [AHEMS] with the notion of U.S. casualties. If you look at it, it's twice as much as the rest combined. The second thing that is noteworthy is that even in its obsession with this topic, what ABC has reported while reporting these stories is that they can't confirm anything they're reporting, which I, I, I thought was a no-no in journalism. I thought you confirmed things and verified things before you put them on the air.

BOB GARFIELD: Brent are you a statistician?

BRENT BOZELL: Yes. We look at these things!

BOB GARFIELD:Okay. Well I'm not, but I do know this --that in a universe of thousands of minutes, the difference between 5 minutes of coverage and 15 minutes of coverage is 10 minutes and it's statistically insignificant -- you cannot draw a conclusion except that ABC has a 10 minute in news judgment!

BRENT BOZELL: When one network is, is giving that topic more coverage than the other ones combined, then it is out of sync with the other ones.

BOB GARFIELD:The networks are frequently criticized by conservative groups about you know marching in liberal lock step, but now you're s-- you're pointing out that viewers tuning in to different networks would get very different stories about the war. When did that become bad?

BRENT BOZELL: Well I - first of all I think when America is at war you are an American first and a journalist second, and a journalist who can't accept that-- I, I think is a deplorable person. You're always an American first. That doesn't mean that you compromise your principles. It doesn't mean you get yourself involved in misinformation or disinformation or anything of the sort. You can still pursue the truth.

BOB GARFIELD: All right. Not to be argumentative about this--

BRENT BOZELL: You?!

BOB GARFIELD: -- but I just can't help myself.

BRENT BOZELL: Go ahead.

BOB GARFIELD:I understand that your organization makes a living finding fault with the press, particularly to the extent that the press is deemed "liberal" or "irresponsible." Is it possible that there is somebody who's obsessed here but it isn't ABC -- that it's you -- that you're so obsessed and so frustrated with the press in general that you're using this fairly insignificant difference in the amount of coverage on this one story as a not-particularly-salient example of your overall gripe with the press? [BOTH SPEAK AT ONCE]

BRENT BOZELL: Well-- in fact I have gone out of my way, and I'll say it on this show as well to say that in the aftermath of the September 11th atrocity, I believe the media as a whole with one or two insignificant exceptions behaved in such an extraordinary manner they showed a humanity, a professionalism and a sense of patriotism that just made me so darn proud of every single one of them. I mean that sincerely.

BOB GARFIELD: Wow! This is a historical moment! [BOTH SPEAK AT ONCE]

BRENT BOZELL: I mean that. I mean that! And then I went and I got medicine! [LAUGHTER]

BOB GARFIELD: Brent Bozell, a delight as always.

BRENT BOZELL: Thank you, sir.

BOB GARFIELD: Brent Bozell is the founder and president of the Media Research Center in Washington, DC. [MUSIC TAG]