The withdrawal from Iraq is progressing at a precipitous pace. No, not the withdrawal of American troops. I’m talking about the withdrawal of the American news media.
While American troop strength in Iraq is being slowly reduced, the press corps there is being rapidly reduced. The raw numbers tell the story:
Only four U.S. news organizations now staff bureaus in Baghdad, compared to a dozen in the early days of the war. CBS and NBC have no correspondents based in Iraq.
The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Washington Post—which all continue to staff small Baghdad bureaus—published a total of 858 front-page stories from Iraq in 2003, but only 138 in the first nine months of this year. The three major American television networks broadcast 130 stories from Iraq between September 2007 and September 2008, compared to 242 stories in the previous 12 months. In September 2007, 219 U.S. journalists were “embedded” with American combat units. Last month, that number was only 39.
So, why the sharp drop-off in U.S. news coverage from Iraq?
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