Soft and Low: Has CNN failed its viewers?

With the five-year anniversary of the Iraq war upon us, and a death toll that has reached 4,000, media outlets across the world have been marking the event in their own ways. But has each done a good job? That depends on who you ask.

At MediaChannel.org, a post which links back to the famed Huffington Post claims that CNN has gotten it all wrong, most specifically with a report by Jeanne Moos. The article outlines the way coverage was poorly balanced towards those who participated in a recent protest for and against the war, and was short in its entire nature, to allow the network to focus back on more soft news coverage.

So are Media Channel and Huffington Post blowing a lot of hot air--can CNN's lack of coverage really be that poor? And can it really have a longterm effect on the public's knowledge of what is happening in Iraq?

Turns out, there may be a correlation. The article also references a study by the Pew Research Institute that shows the public's knowledge of what is happening in Iraq is not in that great of shape.

An excerpt from the Pew Study shows the media may be to blame:

"The drop in awareness comes as press attention to the war has waned. According to the News Content Index conducted by the Project for Excellence in Journalism, the percentage of news stories devoted to the war has sharply declined since last year, dropping from an average of 15% of the newshole in July to just 3% in February."

There are some important questions to ask of the media here. Certainly, the media is turning a watchful eye and a considerable amount of the newshole to the war as the anniversary serves as a legitimate reminder of what's going on so far away.

Still, is the media covering what's soft--Britney Spears, Anna Nicole, Lilo, even alleged affairs of presidential candidates--and in turn covering up the war that America seems to have forgotten?

Are we, as media consumers, to blame as well? After all, we (maybe not you specifically, but certainly a significant number of readers) turn more and more to blogs, entertainment programming and gossip magazines, and away from legitimate news telling about legitimate events that effect people we know.

From soldiers we grew up with who are now away fighting in the war or politicians with voting records which may effect the longevity or termination of the "war on terror," its easy to point fingers at CNN or Wolf Blitzer, but it really comes down to what our own eyes and ears really want to tune into.