STUDY: TV TRUMPETS MILITARY SCANDALS, BUT CONTINUES TO HIDE HEROISM

Alexandria, VAAs the U.S. military eliminated terrorist menace Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Media Research Center released a new study documenting the medias practice of highlighting unconfirmed allegations of military misconduct while ignoring proven military heroism. The new study found the networks in the past three weeks produced more than four times more coverage of alleged misconduct than theyve produced about Americas top heroes in the War on Terror in the past five years.

Today, the American people want to take a victory lap with our military, said Media Research Center President Brent Bozell. They want to thank the troops for their skill, courage, and heroism. But the media dont want to commend our troops. Our study found the networks bury stories of Americas heroes, and instead devote hours of airtime to unproven charges.

Key Findings of new study Touting Military Misdeeds, Hiding Heroes

• In only three weeks, the networks devoted 3 hours and 30 minutes to misconduct allegations connected to Haditha, compared to a mere 52 minutes of reporting on the top 20 military heroes since September 2001.

• 14 of the countrys top 20 military medal recipients have gone unmentioned by ABC, CBS and NBC stories that are proven, public information, not held in secret.

• CBS presented more than twice as much coverage (28 minutes) of these 20 heroes as either ABC or NBC (each about 11 minutes, 45 seconds).