Media coverage. Typical example.
To illustrate a fraction of the bias problem, we counted the number of prisoner-abuse stories on NBC’s evening and morning news programs (NBC Nightly News and Today) from April 29, when the story emerged, through May 11. There were 58 morning and evening stories. Using the Nexis news-data retrieval system, we counted the number of stories on mass graves found in Iraq from the reign of Saddam Hussein in 2003 and 2004. The number of evening and morning news stories on those grim discoveries? Five.
On the May 6, 2003 Nightly News, Jim Maceda reported a very pointed story, suggesting as many as 300,000 may be buried in groups around the country. Tom Brokaw’s show also had a report on May 14, and two more on the weekend of June 7 and 8, when a mass grave was uncovered at Salman Pak. Then, NBC aired nothing until December 16, when reporter Pete Williams mentioned mass graves in a story on an impending trial for Saddam Hussein. NBC has aired no stories on mass graves since then. Today never aired a story in 2003 or 2004 on mass graves in Iraq.