Print stories on McCain's Letterman appearance omitted his “wasted ... lives” comment, despite attention to Obama's

Written by Ben Armbruster

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In his February 28 appearance on CBS' Late Show with David Letterman, during which he announced his intention to run for the Republican nomination for president in 2008, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) claimed that “Americans are very frustrated” with the situation in Iraq and that “they have every right to be.” McCain then added: “We've wasted a lot of our most precious treasure [in Iraq], which is American lives.” The New York Times, The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times all published March 1 articles reporting McCain's announcement on the Late Show, with The New York Times and the Post directly quoting McCain from the program -- but none of these articles noted his claim that “we've wasted” American lives in Iraq. Yet when Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) made similar comments in Iowa on February 11, the Post and the Los Angeles Times reported the remarks the following day. The New York Times, meanwhile, devoted a February 13 article to Obama's subsequent apology and clarification.

As of 12:30 p.m. ET, both the Post and The New York Times had posted a separate AP report on McCain's comments. However, while, as of that time, the Post had several links to stories on McCain's Late Show announcement on its homepage, there were no homepage links to the AP story. Further, The New York Times homepage, as of that time, carried no links to any McCain stories and The Los Angeles Times website had yet to post any stories noting McCain's comments.

By contrast, in its March 1 article on McCain's announcement, the Associated Press reported his comment on American lives being “wasted” in Iraq while also noting that Obama had been criticized for making a similar statement:

Discussing the war with Letterman, McCain repeated his assertion that U.S. troops must remain in Iraq rather than withdrawing early even though the war has been mismanaged.

“Americans are very frustrated, and they have every right to be,” McCain said. “We've wasted a lot of our most precious treasure, which is American lives.”

In February, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama described the lives of troops in Iraq as having been “wasted” but then apologized a day later for making what he called “a slip of the tongue” that he said was not meant to diminish their sacrifice.