NP? civilian casualities

[Doug Millison]

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                    Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting
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ACTION ALERT:
Fox: Civilian Casualties Not News

November 8, 2001

Network news outlets have reported stories about civilian casualties in
Afghanistan with caution, often noting that Taliban claims are nearly
impossible to verify. But many outlets show no inclination to be equally
careful when evaluating the Pentagon's line on casualties.

CNN, for example, has ordered reporters to frame reports of civilian deaths
with reminders that "the Pentagon has repeatedly stressed that it is trying
to minimize" such casualties, and that "the Taliban regime continues to
harbor terrorists who are connected to the September 11 attacks that claimed
thousands of innocent lives in the U.S." (See FAIR Action Alert, 11/1/01.)

The host of Fox News Channel's "Special Report with Brit Hume" (11/5/01)
recently wondered why journalists should bother covering civilian deaths at
all. "The question I have," said Hume, "is civilian casualties are
historically, by definition, a part of war, really.  Should they be as big
news as they've been?"

The idea that civilian casualties have been "big news" in the U.S. is
questionable, but the Fox pundits more or less agreed with Hume.

Mara Liasson from National Public Radio was direct: "No. Look, war is about
killing people. Civilian casualties are unavoidable." Liasson added that she
thought what was missing from television coverage was "a message from the
U.S. government that says we are trying to minimize them, but the Taliban
isn't, and is putting their tanks in mosques, and themselves among women and
children." (Of course, anyone who has watched much TV news knows that this
information is included in virtually every report.)

Fox pundit and U.S. News & World Report columnist Michael Barone echoed
Hume's earlier remarks: "I think the real problem here is that this is poor
news judgment on the part of some of these news organizations. Civilian
casualties are not, as Mara says, news.  The fact is that they accompany
wars."

If journalists shouldn't cover civilian deaths because they are a normal
part of war, does that principle apply to all war coverage? Dropping bombs
is also standard procedure in a war; will Fox stop reporting airstrikes?

Fox's marketing slogan is "We report, you decide," but these Fox pundits
have decided for you that some deaths aren't worth reporting. Then again,
being honest journalists might not be the first order of business. As Hume
told the New York Times, "Look, neutrality as a general principle is an
appropriate concept for journalists who are covering institutions of some
comparable quality.... This is a conflict between the United States and
murdering barbarians."

With both Fox and CNN crusading against coverage of civilian deaths in
Afghanistan, it's little wonder that self-censorship is taking place at
smaller outlets.  A memo circulated at the Panama City (Fla.) News Herald
and leaked to Jim Romenesko's Media News warned editors:

"DO NOT USE photos on Page 1A showing civilian casualties from the U.S. war
on Afghanistan. Our sister paper in Fort Walton Beach has done so and
received hundreds and hundreds of threatening e-mails and the like.... DO
NOT USE wire stories which lead with civilian casualties from the U.S. war
on Afghanistan. They should be mentioned further down in the story. If the
story needs rewriting to play down the civilian casualties, DO IT. The only
exception is if the U.S. hits an orphanage, school or similar facility and
kills scores or hundreds of children."

This policy of consistently burying the facts about the impact of the war on
Afghanistan must make the pundits at Fox proud.  But journalists who care
about the principles of the profession should be embarrassed.


ACTION: Please let Fox anchor Brit Hume know that the deaths of civilians in
Afghanistan are worth covering-- just like the deaths of civilians in the
World Trade Center were worth covering.

CONTACT:
Brit Hume
Managing Editor & Anchor, "Special Report with Brit Hume"
Phone: 1-888-369-4762
mailto:special at foxnews.com


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