“I do know that there are a lot of good things that are happening [in Iraq] that aren’t covered,” she said. “And I think that the drum beat in the country from the media, from the only way people know what is happening unless they happen to have a loved one deployed there, is discouraging….

“There are also good things going on that people don’t have a chance to see….Schools that are being built. There are parts of country that are rebuilding….So I’d like to see the media give a more balanced view of it.”

She added that she hopes for “more balanced coverage by the media” in the future. “I understand why the polls are like that, because of the coverage we see every single day in Iraq. It’s not encouraging coverage to be sure.”

She said that she knows Americans “support the troops” and she hopes the troops keep that in mind when they see the media coverage.

The recently released Iraq Study Group report declared, “there is significant underreporting of the violence in Iraq. The standard for recording attacks acts as a filter to keep events out of reports and databases…For example, on one day in July 2006 there were 93 attacks or significant acts of violence reported. Yet a careful review of the reports for that single day brought to light 1,100 acts of violence. Good policy is difficult to make when information is systematically collected in a way that minimizes its discrepancy with policy goals.”

Source: Editor and Publisher