Will ABC Tragedy Impact War Coverage?
As the world of journalism waits for updates on the condition of ABC co-anchor Bob Woodruff and cameraman Doug Vogt, it's worth pondering what, if any, impact this event will have on the press – and the coverage of the Iraq war. Here's how Alessandra Stanley opened her story today in The New York Times:
Bob Woodruff was in Baghdad for ABC reporting the good news that the Bush administration complains is ignored by the news media, and he ended up as a glaring illustration of the bad news.More from Stanley:
What happened to Mr. Woodruff and Mr. Vogt was one of those chilling television moments that mark a milestone. This conflict has shown all too clearly that soldiers, civilians, aid workers and journalists are all targets.Stanley allows this is no "Cronkite moment" that will alter the course of the war in Iraq. But it got us wondering whether it will in any way change the way the press reports the war, and by extension, how Americans view the war. What do you think?Soldiers, American and Iraqi, are wounded and killed by roadside bombs and ambushes every day in tragedies so common they float to the back pages. But until now, at least, network anchors always seemed to sail through hot spots with an inalienable aura of invulnerability, like senators or movie stars.
Mr. Woodruff's plight underscored at a whole new level that Americans there feel like sitting ducks, picked off by a faceless enemy.