CBS Reporter Spill Beans on Reporting In Iraq and Afghanistan (Updated)

The New York Times has an great read at Reporters Say Networks Put Wars on Back Burner

Wow. Did you know this little fact:

CBS News no longer stations a single full-time correspondent in Iraq, where some 150,000 United States troops are deployed.
Paul Friedman, a senior vice president at CBS News, said the news division does not get reports from Iraq on television “with enough frequency to justify keeping a very, very large bureau in Baghdad.” He said CBS correspondents can “get in there very quickly when a story merits it.”.

Does not the incredible success we have seen in the last 6 weeks "merit" getting reporters(notice plural) to Iraq now!!!!

Ms. Logan said she begged for months to be embedded with a group of Navy Seals, and when she came back with the story, a CBS producer said to her, “One guy in uniform looks like any other guy in a uniform.”
WTF!!!!

Both Ms. Logan and Mr. McCarthy noted that more coalition soldiers were killed in Afghanistan in May than in Iraq. No American television network has a full-time correspondent in Afghanistan, although CNN recently said it would open a bureau in Kabul.
“It’s terrible,” Ms. Logan said in the telephone interview. She called it a financial decision. “We can’t afford to maintain operations in Iraq and Afghanistan at the same time,” she said. “It’s so expensive and the security risks are so great that it’s prohibitive.”.

Get this-
Journalists at all three American television networks with evening newscasts expressed worries that their news organizations would withdraw from the Iraqi capital after the November presidential election. They spoke only on the condition of anonymity in order to avoid offending their employers.

Good read and tip of the hat to AJ and his post News Organizations Conspire To Influence US Elections that led me to this.. Go read that post for his commentary

AJ noted in part :
How could success in Iraq not be interesting? How could it not be fascinating to see such a huge turn around in the fate of a nation? How could in not be uplifting to see moderate Arab Muslims become so repulsed by al-Qaeda as to take up arms against the Islamo Fascists and ally with the US? How could one of this nations most amazing military successes not be news?

So true.

Mrs Logan's comments made me recall comments she made as that involved a incredible story how US Servicemen saved special needs kids from a living hell.

She said in part:
What I discovered when I visited the unit involved was that the soldiers thought the media was ignoring the story because we're only interested in explosions and firefights and "bad news," an understanding I worked hard to change since I do not believe it is true and have four years of work in this country to support my case.

Thanks for your efforts Mrs Logan. Too bad your superiors as well as others are not supporting you now.

Update-
I am discussing this at my LSU Board(THERE ARE PICS OF MRS LOGAN :) )
One guy has complied the depressing numbers
Minutes of Iraq Coverage Broadcast
ABC/NBC/CBS for 2007 = 1157
ABC/NBC/CBS for 1st half of 2008 = 181 minutes
"NBC Nightly News" for 2008 = 74 minutes
"ABC World News" for 2008 = 55 minues "
CBS Evening News" for 2008 = 51 minutes

52 weeks x 5 weekdays per week = 260 weekdays 1157 min. / 260 weekdays = 4.45 min. / weekday 181 min. / 125 weekdays = 1.45 min. / weekday per station: 4.45 % 3 = (1.15 min. / weekday) per network 1.45 % 3 = (0.48 min. / weekday) per network

Average time spent on Iraq during broadcasts for CBS so far during 2008 = less than 25 seconds per night.