Does the media ignore deaths of foreigners?

This is a diary about media coverage. I started thinking about this when I had to open up my local paper to page three to find out there had been an earthquake that killed many thousands in Indonesia.

That experience made me think about the way that the media covers the deaths of non-Americans. My method was simple, and hardly foolproof - I used LexisNexis to look into the coverage of two recent stories.

I. Earthquake in Indonesia

The earliest estimates were that over three thousand had died, now the number is above five thousand. Still, somehow, this tragedy was not front-page news for most people in the country.

Using LexisNexis, I tried to find out where this story was in the local papers. I apologize if I've left your paper off this list, the database clearly had left off some sources:

The New York Times, A1
St. Petersburg Times (Florida), 1A
The Washington Post, A01
Los Angeles Times, A1
Seattle Times, A1
The Houston Chronicle, A2
Tulsa World (Oklahoma), A2
Buffalo News (New York), A3
Capital Times (Madison), A3
Newsday (New York), A3
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, A4
Daily News (New York), A4
St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Missouri), A7
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 9A
San Francisco Chronicle, A10
Rocky Mountain News (Denver), 28A

Methodology: Search terms were "Indonesia" and "earthquake"

I'm sure that most people in this country are less likely to know victims of an earthquake in Indonesia than in a flood or a mine disaster. Still, I was shocked to have read the front-page, and then turn to page three and find the news of so many people dying.

II. The alleged massacre of civilians in Haditha

This story was competing against the earthquake for coverage, in large part because of Representative Murtha's attention to it. Murtha now says that 24 civilians may have been killed by Marines.

Reporting now says many of the victims were asleep, and one Marine says that ""They ranged from little babies to adult males and females. I'll never be able to get that out of my head. I can still smell the blood. This left something in my head and heart," (LA Times 5/29, A1). A fifteen year old eyewitness was quoted by her uncle: "American troops immediately cordoned off the area and raided two nearby houses, shooting at everyone inside. It was a massacre in every sense of the word." (AP 3/21)

Two things strike me about the coverage. First, the depths to which our military went to cover it up was amazing. Second, the media was clearly terrified of reporting on it, and many papers still have not. Bear in mind that this happened in November of last year.

Rereading the contemporaneous reporting on it in The New York Times is chilling because the untruths are so blatant:

Road Bomb Aimed at Convoy Kills 15 Civilians and a Marine in Restive Iraqi Province
By EDWARD WONG; Hassan M. Fattah contributed reporting from Cairo for this article.
[BAGHDAD, Iraq, Nov. 20] The Marine Corps said Sunday that 15 Iraqi civilians and a marine were killed Saturday when a roadside bomb exploded in Haditha, 140 miles northwest of Baghdad. At least 11 other Iraqis were killed or discovered dead on Sunday in various incidents, and military officials reported the deaths of two more Americans and a British soldier. . . .

A senior police officer in the northern city of Mosul said a house full of suicide bombers that was raided by Iraqi police officers and American soldiers on Saturday might have been a northern base for Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, the militant group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

The officer, Brig. Gen. Muhammad al-Wagaa, said Iraqi police officers surrounded the house after interrogating an insurgent captured Friday. When a fierce gun battle erupted, the police called for assistance from the American military.

The insurgents then detonated a ready-to-use car bomb in the house, General Wagaa said. The blast killed 11 of the fighters, but the Iraqi and American forces captured 4 people. One of the dead insurgents was a woman wearing an amulet around her neck that proclaimed her as a martyr, he added.

The general did not have any information about whether Mr. Zarqawi might have been in the house or linked to the people there, nor did an American military spokesman contacted Sunday night in Baghdad.

American authorities are investigating whether Mr. Zarqawi was killed, Reuters reported, but Trent Duffy, a White House spokesman, said it was ''highly unlikely.''

I won't even comment here on the Zarqawi section, but want to point out just how far the cover story now appears from reality. For those of you who are not familiar with this story, which has been uncovered largely by Knight Ridder, it is now clear that almost every aspect of the original story was false. Good diaries on this have been done by weldon berger (http://www.dailykos.com/...) and
EZ Writer (http://www.dailykos.com/...).

But the media coverage on this has been incredible, even once the initial reporting by the wire services had been done. Knight Ridder had stories on March 16, and then a very complete story on April 9. Reuters had a story with interviews of eyewitnesses in late March. Yet many papers did not mention the topic until this weekend, and many of the majors waited months before they breathed a word:

First mentions of civilians killed at Haditha

Buffalo News (New York), Seattle Times, March 17, 2006 (K-R)
The Boston Globe, March 22, 2006 (Reuters)
Houston Chronicle. April 9, 2006 (K-R)
The New York Times, May 19, 2006
The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, May 20, 2006
The Washington Times, May 25, 2006
Rocky Mountain News, The San Diego Union-Tribune, May 27, 2006

Methodology: Search terms were "Haditha" and "civilians"

So during the weeks from the middle of March to the middle of May, people did not really need to know about this. Why not? Police wrongly killing an American is front page news the next day. I think it is especially egregious that the Edward Wong and the Times did not see a need to correct their previous stenography.

Sort of makes you how much of what you've read about civilians dying at the hand of insurgents is true? Or what you're not reading about? Have you heard anything about the eleven member family reported killed near Balad in March?

III. De-emphasizing the deaths of non-Americans

I know there are no revelations here, but for those of who think the media has started to come around, what this says to me that there are still some topic that are taboo. The press is less afraid to talk about disapproval of the president, but they are still afraid to report that Bush has broken our sacred institutions.

On a cultural level, I also think this says something a little ugly about a passive jingoism that we still have. When war casualties are mentioned on CNN and elsewhere, it almost always includes only American military casualties, omitting not just Iraqis, both civilian and military, but even coalition forces. The casual chauvanism that we display towards those outside of our tribe is all too often tolerated without comment.

•  Been awhile

  since I've diaried. I work too hard at a job that tends to follow me home at night, and so holidays allow me to check in with the Dkos community again. Hope you're doing well.

  by MarkC on Mon May 29, 2006 at 09:24:12 AM PDT

•  Brown, possibly Muslim = invisible n/t

  by pat208 on Mon May 29, 2006 at 09:31:52 AM PDT

•  You make several good

  points, but I'm not sure they're related.

  I found that November  20 NYT article v. interesting--and definitely worthy of a depth of analysis of which, sadly, I'm not capable. I suppose it's an inevitable outgrowth of a news service which simply doesn't have the resources to check every claim made by government sources, and which hasn't internalized the need to do so.

  But as far as downplaying the deaths of foreigners, and being casually chauvanistic toward those 'outside our tribe,' I'm not sure how far one can take that comlpaint. It's a matter of judgement and degree--saying we should play 'more' attention to other peoples is one thing, but how much 'more' that includes is tough. We are naturally--and I think inevitably--more concerned with hearing about what's happening to members of 'our own tribe.'

  by GussieFN on Mon May 29, 2006 at 09:32:11 AM PDT

  •  Benefit of the doubt

    When I think about it, this is much of the problem for the responsible and professional media: they were raised, as I was, to give the government the benefit of the doubt.

    They assume the government is honest, until such time as to suspect dishonesty. So yes, they frame reports as 'The Marine Corps claimed ...' but they don't feel the pressing need to investigate that report, as perhaps they would if another group made the claim.

    Oddly naive, when at the same time they're so destructively cynical about little things like why politics matters.

    by GussieFN on Mon May 29, 2006 at 09:36:56 AM PDT

    •  I think the casualty counts are the give-away

      The use of numbers like 2000 dead, when the actual cost is so much higher can only make sense in a world where American lives are the gold standard.

      I'm with you on the second comment, which is much more how I think this all works. Like you, I find it hard to believe the gentlefolk of the press haven't adjusted to the new level of official disinformation -- after all, they are the ones reporting on it.

      I appreciate your second comment, but it deprives me of the opportunity to quote Wodehouse and exclaim: "I think not, Gussie Fink-Nottle!"

      by MarkC on Mon May 29, 2006 at 12:30:45 PM PDT

  •  You're Much Too Charitable

    We are a nation of self-absorbed navel-gazers.  The entire world should bow and scrape at the sight of an American, but as for them, well, they don't really place the same value on a human life, y'know...

    Go to almost any other country, and you'll find much more comprehensive, and balanced, news about what's happening throughout the world.  Here, we learn about Aruba when a white girl goes missing, and then they should alter their entire existence to respond to our concerns...no, demands!  

    It's no wonder the world hates us--the Ugly American not only lives, he's LARGE and IN CHARGE!!!

    by serrano on Mon May 29, 2006 at 09:38:03 AM PDT

•  Why?

  Because Americans are the Chosen People. Waddayou, new?

  by BlueinColorado on Mon May 29, 2006 at 09:42:26 AM PDT