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I thought you might be interested in the article from the FAIR web site. The following article will be appended to your message: Many Deaths Left Out of Iraq Story With U.S. forces under consistent attack in Iraq, months after George W. Bush declared "major combat" over on May 1, media routinely refer to the number of American soldiers killed. But many of those reports dramatically undercount the actual number of U.S. deaths since Bush's May 1 address. A recent NPR report (8/7/03) was typical: "These two deaths bring to 55 the number of U.S. forces killed in combat since May 1st, when President Bush declared major fighting had ended." A survey of transcripts from some leading broadcast news outlets--ABC World News Tonight, NBC Nightly News, CBS Evening News and National Public Radio-- found numerous reports that used the same phrasing. These media are making a distinction-- one rarely explained to audiences-- between combat and non-combat deaths, choosing in most cases to only report the former. NPR used this formulation earlier this month (8/3/03): "The U.S. has suffered more than 50 combat fatalities since major fighting ended in May." The following day (8/4/03), it omitted the usual qualifier, rendering the report inaccurate: "So far, 52 American soldiers have died since major combat officially ended in Iraq" (8/4/03). In reality, the total U.S. dead was about twice that figure, as tallied by the website Iraq Coalition Casualty Count (http://lunaville.org/warcasualties/Summary.aspx). The broadcast TV networks tend to feature the lower number in their reports as well. "The total killed since President Bush declared the major combat over: 56 Americans," declared Campbell Brown (NBC Nightly News, 8/8/03). In another reference to Bush's May 1 speech, ABC's John Cochran reported (World News Tonight, 8/8/03): "Since the president gave that assurance, 59 Americans have been killed, 399 wounded." CBS Evening News reported (8/8/03) that since Bush's comments, "56 U.S. troops have been killed, including one last night, a guard from the 82nd Airborne, shot while on patrol in Baghdad." To read the rest of the article, please click on the link below. http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1607 This article was published on Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting's Website (http://www.fair.org).

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