Special Media Matters Report: Iraq Study Group: What the Media Aren't Telling You

Major News Outlets Largely Ignore Six Key Findings in the Report

Washington, DC - In the day following the release of the report by the Iraq Study Group, major news outlets have largely overlooked numerous significant disclosures in the 100-page report. Media Matters for America has identified six such findings, including that the Pentagon has significantly underreported the amount of violence in Iraq, and highlighted the major news outlets, like The Wall Street Journal, that have failed to report on all six.

"It's troubling, though not surprising, that the media have largely ignored significant conclusions made by this bipartisan commission," said David Brock, President and CEO of Media Matters. "When the Iraq Study Group report discloses such findings as the underreporting of the violence in Iraq and a dire assessment of the current state of affairs in Afghanistan, the media should have taken the time to inform the public. Instead they have allowed these alarming discoveries to remain buried. That is unacceptable."

The Media Matters survey included the articles published by six major print outlets on December 7, the reporting by the three major cable news channels on December 6, and the three broadcast networks' coverage on their December 6 evening news programs and their December 7 morning shows. While most outlets included in the survey reported on some of the disclosures, The Wall Street Journal, CBS News, and Fox News failed to report on any of the six findings.

Disclosures Overlooked by the Media

1. Pentagon's Underreporting of Violence in Iraq

Near the end of the ISG report, the commission wrote that there is "significant underreporting of the violence in Iraq" -- a finding that takes on particular significance considering President Bush's repeated assertion that his Iraq policy is tied to the "conditions on the ground." According to the commission, the Department of Defense "standard" for recording acts of violence functions "as a filter to keep events out of reports and databases" and thus has inaccurately depicted the "events on the ground."

The commission proceeded to recommend that the "Director of National Intelligence and the Secretary of Defense should ... institute immediate changes in the collection of data about violence and the sources of violence in Iraq to provide a more accurate picture of events on the ground."

Despite the pertinence of this disclosure to the ongoing policy debate over Iraq, numerous major media outlets have left it out of their coverage:

Print media: The New York Times made no mention of the Pentagon's "systematic[]" underreporting of the violence in any of its four December 7 articles on the subject. The front-page December 7 Wall Street Journal article on the commission's findings also ignored this finding.

Broadcast networks: On both the December 6 edition of the Evening News and the December 7 edition of The Early Show, CBS failed to report on this disclosure.

Cable news networks*: Neither CNN nor Fox News reported this finding.

2. Lack of Knowledge Regarding Insurgency and Militias

Buried deep in the ISG report is the commission's finding that "the U.S. government still does not understand very well either the insurgency in Iraq or the role of the militias." The commission went on to portray the intelligence community's degree of knowledge on these fronts as falling "far short of what policy makers need to know."

After three-and-a-half years in Iraq, the United States does not have an adequate grasp on "the political and military threat to American men and women" stationed there. But several news outlets ignored this disclosure in their reporting on the ISG report:

Print media: The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times and USA Today made no mention of the U.S. intelligence community's reported lack of knowledge about the insurgency and militias.

Broadcast networks: Both CBS' and ABC's December 6 evening newscasts and December 7 morning shows ignored this finding.

Cable news networks: Neither CNN nor Fox News reported this disclosure.

3. Shift of Troops from Iraq to Afghanistan

In a section of the report titled "The Wider Regional Context," the commission provided a dire assessment of the current state of affairs in Afghanistan. The commission subsequently recommended that the United States "provide additional political, economic, and military support for Afghanistan, including resources that might become available as combat forces are moved from Iraq."

But this assessment -- that the situation in Afghanistan has so deteriorated that U.S. troops currently in Iraq may have to be diverted back there -- has been widely overlooked by the major news outlets:

Print media: The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and USA Today ignored the recommendation entirely in their December 7 coverage. While The New York Times and The Washington Post also made no mention of this part of the report in their various December 7 articles, both newspapers did publish the report's executive summary, which included the recommendation.

Broadcast networks: None of the three network news outlets -- on either their December 6 newscasts or their December 7 morning shows -- reported on this particular recommendation.

Cable news networks: Neither MSNBC nor Fox News reported the commission's suggestion that U.S. troops be diverted from Iraq to Afghanistan.

4. Lack of Arabic Speakers

In cataloguing the various deficiencies of the ongoing U.S. efforts in Iraq, the commission repeatedly pointed out the lack of fluent Arabic speakers among U.S. personnel.

But in their coverage of the ISG report, few news outlets brought up this disclosure:

Print media: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and the Associated Press all ignored the severe need for more U.S. personnel fluent in Arabic.

Broadcast networks: Neither the CBS Evening News nor NBC's Nightly News mentioned this disclosure.

Cable news networks: Both MSNBC and Fox News failed to report this finding.

5. U.S. Considering Extending National Guard and Army Reserves Deployments

In its examination of the Iraq war, the commission devoted considerable attention to the conflict's detrimental effect on "Army readiness." Noting that this situation will likely lead to "undesirable changes in its deployment practices," the commission disclosed that the Army is "now considering breaking its compact with the National Guard and Reserves that limits the number of years that these citizen-soldiers can be deployed."

Of the print media, broadcast networks, and cable news networks included in our survey, Media Matters did not find a single mention of this disclosure.

6. Spending on Iraq War is Subject to Little Scrutiny

As an example of how "the public interest is not well served by the government's preparation, presentation, and review of the budget for the war in Iraq," the commission highlighted the administration's persistent use of emergency supplemental appropriations requests to "[c]ircumvent[] the budget process." It recommended that "[c]osts for the war in Iraq should be included in the President's annual budget request, starting in FY 2008."

While it is billions of taxpayer dollars that are passing through Congress "with perfunctory review" and being diverted to "special spending projects," numerous news outlets failed to inform their readers and viewers of this finding:

Print media: The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and the Associated Press all ignored that the commission strongly criticized the Bush administration's handling of the Iraq spending requests. The Los Angeles Times also ignored this part of the report in its December 7 news articles, but highlighted in an editorial that the commission "call[ed] out the Bush administration for its excessive reliance on supplemental appropriations bills."

Broadcast networks: None of the three network news outlets -- on either their December 6 newscasts or their December 7 morning shows -- reported on this recommendation.

Cable news networks: Both CNN and MSNBC made no mention of this finding.

* Media Matters examined the prime-time December 6 coverage (4 p.m.-11 p.m. ET) on both MSNBC and Fox News and the full December 6 coverage on CNN.