US news is skewed toward pro-war views

[S.R. Prozak]

In Iraq Crisis, Networks Are Megaphones for Official Views
    Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting
    18 Mar 03

Network newscasts, dominated by current and former U.S. officials, largely
exclude Americans who are skeptical of or opposed to an invasion of Iraq, a
new study by FAIR has found.

Looking at two weeks of coverage (1/30/03-2/12/03), FAIR examined the 393
on-camera sources who appeared in nightly news stories about Iraq on ABC
World News Tonight, CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News and PBS's NewsHour
with Jim Lehrer.  The study began one week before and ended one week after
Secretary of State Colin Powell's February 5 presentation at the U.N., a
time that saw particularly intense debate about the idea of a war against
Iraq on the national and international level.

More than two-thirds (267 out of 393) of the guests featured were from the
United States.  Of the U.S. guests, a striking 75 percent (199) were either
current or former government or military officials.  Only one of the
official U.S. sources-- Sen. Edward Kennedy (D.-Mass.)-- expressed
skepticism or opposition to the war.  Even this was couched in vague terms:
"Once we get in there how are we going to get out, what’s the loss for
American troops are going to be, how long we're going to be stationed
there, what’s the cost is going to be," said Kennedy on NBC Nightly News
(2/5/03).

Similarly, when both U.S. and non-U.S. guests were included, 76 percent
(297 of 393) were either current or retired officials.  Such a
predominance of official sources virtually assures that independent and
grassroots perspectives will be underrepresented.  Of all official
sources, 75 percent (222 of 297) were associated with either the U.S. or
with governments that support the Bush administration's position on Iraq;
only four out of those 222, or 2 percent, of these sources were skeptics or
opponents of war.

Twenty of the 297 official sources (7 percent) represented the government
of Iraq, while a further 19 (6 percent) represented other governments--
mostly friendly to the U.S.-- who have expressed doubts or opposition to
the U.S.'s war effort. (Another 34 sources, representing 11 percent of
officials, were current or former U.N. employees.  Although members of the
U.N. inspection teams made statements that were both critical of Iraq's
cooperation and supportive of further inspections, because of their
official position of neutrality on the question of war they were not
counted as skeptics.)  Of all official sources, 14 percent (43 of 297)
represented a position skeptical or opposed to the U.S. war policy. 
(Sources were coded as skeptics/critics if either their statements or their
affiliations put them in that category; for example, all French government
officials were counted as skeptics, regardless of the content of their
quote.)

The remaining 96 sources-- those without a current or former government
connection-- had slightly more balanced views; 26 percent of these
non-official sources took a skeptical or critical position on the war. 
Yet, at a time when 61 percent of respondents in a CBS poll (2/5-6/03) were
saying that they felt the U.S. should "wait and give the United Nations and
weapons inspectors more time," only sixteen of the 68 U.S. guests (24
percent) who were not officials represented such views.

Half of the non-official U.S. skeptics were "persons in the street"; five
of them were not even identified by name.  Only one U.S. source, Catherine
Thomason of Physicians for Social Responsibility, represented an anti-war
organization.  Of all 393 sources, only three (less than 1 percent) were
identified with organized protests or anti-war groups.

Overall, 68 sources, or 17 percent of the total on-camera sources,
represented skeptical or critical positions on the U.S.'s war policy--
ranging from Baghdad officials to people who had concerns about the timing
of the Bush administration's war plans.  The percentage of skeptical
sources ranged from 21 percent at PBS (22 of 106) to 14 percent at NBC (18
of 125). ABC (16 of 92) and CBS (12 of 70) each had 17 percent skeptics.

ACTION: 
Please urge ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS to broaden the sources they rely on in
coverage of the Iraq crisis.

CONTACT:
ABC World News Tonight
Phone: 212-456-4040
mailto:PeterJennings at abcnews.com

CBS Evening News
Phone: 212-975-3691
mailto:evening at cbsnews.com

NBC Nightly News
Phone: 212-664-4971
mailto:nightly at nbc.com

PBS NewsHour with Jim Lehrer 
Phone: 703-998-2150
mailto:newshour at pbs.org

As always, please remember that your comments are taken more seriously if
you maintain a polite tone. Please cc fair at fair.org with your
correspondence.

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