Re: Dan Kennedy on Reliable Sources

["Dan Billings" <billings@suscom-maine.net>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Donna Halper" <dlh@donnahalper.com>
To: "Dan Billings" <billings@suscom-maine.net>
Cc: <boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org>
Sent: Sunday, April 20, 2003 2:28 PM
Subject: Re: Dan Kennedy on Reliable Sources


>I have seen that story covered all over the place, but
> mostly in magazines, I must admit.  On the other hand, I absolutely saw
> something about it on CNN (Headline News), ABC and CBS.

The story has got good coverage in print and I saw a lengthy story on NBC.
I usually watch NBC Nightly News and watch some of the three cable networks,
though I watch CNN more than the others and I have not seen the story on
CNN, though I'm sure that they have given it some coverage.  They haven't
given it the same play as they did of the opening of their bureau in Havana.
Of course, they have spent lots of time on the Laci Peterson story so they
probably don't have time.  (Can someone explain why that is a national
story? )

> But the truth is
> ALL the networks avoid certain stories.  A report came out last week that
> over 300,000 have been killed in renewed fighting in Rwanda, for example,
> and I cannot recall anyone-- Fox, CNN, or the major networks (except for
> ABC) even mentioning it.

I have to admit that I missed that story.

> Maybe that's why the millions of dead in Rwanda are not seen as
> news-worthy until one American dies there?

And why is it that the looting of the museum in Baghdad and the starving
lions at the zoo has got so much more coverage than civilian deaths?  I was
not concerned about the small amount of coverage of that issue during the
war because I believed that the progress of the war was more important and
that it was impossible to do accurate coverage of the issue during the war.
Now that most of the combat is over, the press should be assessing the
civilian casualties and providing some perspective on the US efforts to
avoid such casualties.  Did the US military do as well as they claimed?  How
do the numbers compare to other wars?  What are the actual numbers?  I have
seen pictures of injured in hospitals and the tragic story of one boy in
southern Iraq has got big coverage but I have seen no analysis of the issue.
But there have been lots of pictures of the lions and  lots of whining about
the museum.

-- Dan Billings, Bowdoinham, Maine