A September 5 article -- with the headline, “Couric: 'Real Progress' in Iraq” -- posted on wcbstv.com (the website of New York CBS affiliate WCBS-TV) claimed that, during an interview with WCBS, CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric “sa[id] she has already seen dramatic improvements in the country.” However, according to a video clip of the interview posted alongside the article, Couric did not claim that there has been “progress” or “dramatic improvements” in Iraq as a whole. Instead, she said that “real progress” has been made in the city of Fallujah. In addition, the article misquoted Couric, claiming that she said, during the interview, “The incidents [of violence] in Iraq have gone down dramatically.” Couric actually said that “the number of violent incidents really in Anbar province -- that's one third of Iraq, which is in the West -- have gone down dramatically.” Additionally, on the September 5 edition of Fox News' Special Report, guest host and Fox News Washington bureau chief Brian Wilson reported that Couric “says she has seen major improvements during her visit to Iraq” and misquoted Couric exactly as the wcbstv.com article had done.

From the September 5 wcbstv.com article:

One week before Gen. David Petraeus is expected to give his report on U.S. progress in Iraq, CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric says she has already seen dramatic improvements in the country.

“We hear so much about things going bad, but real progress has been made there in terms of security and stability,” Couric said Tuesday. “I mean, obviously, infrastructure problems abound, but Sunnis and U.S. forces are working together. They banded together because they had a common enemy: al Qaeda.”

[...]

“The spike in police has really been significant,” Couric said. “The incidents in Iraq have gone down dramatically.”

However, during Couric's WCBS interview, which previewed her upcoming interview of Gen. David Petraeus, commander of Multi-National Forces in Iraq, Couric asserted: "[H]e [Petraeus] took me to Fallujah, which you know is in Anbar province in Western Iraq, and this is considered a real role model of something working right in Iraq." Couric added: “We hear so much about things going bad, but real progress has been made there in terms of security and stability,” referring to Fallujah. She later asserted that “the number of violent incidents really in Anbar province ... have gone down dramatically as well.”

As Media Matters for America noted, according to a recently released Government Accountability Office progress report on Iraqi benchmarks, "[i]t is unclear whether sectarian violence in Iraq has decreased." The report also stated that “the average number of daily attacks against civilians remained about the same over the last six months [February to July 2007].”

During the “Political Grapevine” segment of Special Report, Wilson reported that Couric had said “she has seen major improvements during her visit to Iraq” and that “real progress has been made there in terms of security and stability,” but he did not mention that she was referring to Fallujah and not Iraq as a whole. He then misquoted Couric exactly as the wcbstv.com article had done, claiming she said, “The incidents [of violence] in Iraq have gone down dramatically”:

WILSON: CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric says she has seen major improvements during her visit to Iraq. “We hear so much,” she says, “about things going on badly, but real progress has been made there in terms of security and stability.”

She said these comments -- made these comments on Tuesday's broadcast. She noted that moderate Sunnis are joining the Iraqi security forces, saying “The spike in police has really been significant. The incidents in Iraq have gone down dramatically.”

She said that Fallujah is considered a real role model of something working right in Iraq.

The same day, the Republican National Committee released a research briefing, titled “They Said It! CBS' Katie Couric On Progress In Iraq,” highlighting wcbstv.com's characterization of Couric's comments. Several conservative blogs have also cited wcbstv.com's report.

From the interview aired live on the September 4 edition of WCBS-TV's CBS 2 News:

CHRIS WRAGGE (co-anchor): Katie, last night, President Bush made an unexpected trip to Iraq. You had that last night; tonight, it's more of your interview with David Petraeus. Is that correct?

COURIC: That's right, Chris. You know, he took me to Fallujah, which you know is in Anbar province in Western Iraq, and this is considered a real role model of something working right in Iraq. We hear so much about things going bad, but real progress has been made there in terms of security and stability.

I mean, obviously, infrastructure problems abound, but Sunnis and U.S. forces are working together. They banded together because they had a common enemy, Al Qaeda, and now many more people have joined the Iraqi security forces. The spike in police has really been significant since last year and the number of violent incidents really in Anbar province -- that's one third of Iraq, which is in the West -- have gone down dramatically as well, so, General Petraeus took me on a tour of Fallujah and we had a long conversation about a lot of things, about Iraq in general, and he gave me a bit of a preview of what he'll talk about next week to the president and on Capitol Hill.