FAIR <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Date: Mon, 21 Mar 2005 15:14:50 -0800
Subject: Counting the Iraqi Dead
To: "Alan Smith" <[log in to unmask]>
From: "FAIR" <[log in to unmask]>

FAIR-L
Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting
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ACTION ALERT:
Counting the Iraqi Dead

March 21, 2005

On the weekend of the two-year anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of
Iraq, media outlets took stock of the war's death toll. But the national
newscasts undercounted the most dramatic loss of life: the deaths of Iraqi
civilians.

On the March 18 CBS Evening News, reporter Byron Pitts gave these figures:
"Today, U.S. deaths number more than 1,500. There are no exact figures for
Iraqi fatalities, but estimates are for every American killed, 11 Iraqis
died." In other wo! rds, more than 16,500 Iraqi deaths.

NBC's Brian Williams (3/18/05) offered a slightly higher estimate: "So
far, 1,513 American military personnel have been killed, 11,344 injured,
and many of those are amputees. Estimates of the Iraqi death toll are hard
to come by officially, but the civilian toll is thought to range from
17,000 to nearly 20,000 dead and beyond." ABC's World News Tonight did
not appear to offer a similar count, but earlier this month (3/3/05)
anchor Peter Jennings reported: "There are no official numbers of Iraqi
civilian casualties, but Iraqi Body Count, an independent web-site that
compiles media reports of the deaths there, says as many as 18,000 Iraqis
may have been killed."

With his "and beyond" comment, NBC's Williams seemed to be referring to an
estimate of Iraqi civilian casualties that none of the networks saw fit to
mention: According to a study published in the respected British medical
journal The Lancet (10/29/04), about 100,000 Iraqi civilians have died as
a result of the war. The majority of deaths were due to violence,
primarily as a result of U.S.-led military action. One of the researchers
on the project said that the estimate is likely a conservative one (New
York Times, 10/29/04). It's certainly a more scientific estimate than the
Iraq Body Count figure cited by ABC, which is, as that project's website
notes, a "compilation of civilian deaths that have been reported by
recognized sources.... It is likely that many if not most civilian
casualties will go unreported by the media."

Recent polling (ABC/Washington Post poll, 3/16/05) indicates that the vast
majority of the American public believes that U.S. casualties in Iraq are
unacceptable. One can only wonder what Americans think about the level of
Iraqi civilian casualties; unfortunately, the media's count dramatically
minimizes that death toll.


ACTION: Contact t! he network newscasts and ask them to include the Lancet
study in their reporting about Iraq's civilian casualties.


CONTACT:
ABC World News Tonight
Phone: 212-456-4040
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CBS Evening News
Phone: 212-975-3691
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NBC Nightly News
Phone: 212-664-4971
mailto:[log in to unmask]

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To listen to a CounterSpin interview with civilian casualties researcher
Richard Garfield, go to:
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2021

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