An Aug. 21 NewsBusters post by Brent Baker purports to detail how “The peaceful departure of the last U.S. combat forces from Iraq this week was another milestone towards the successful end of a war that many liberal journalists declared lost four years ago.” Baker adds, “Since early 2009, the war in Iraq has been a relatively low priority for the national press, which has focused on decrying the war in Afghanistan and cheerleading the Obama administration’s aggressive domestic agenda.”
Baker is careful to avoid one notable question: If the war was so successful as a Republican venture, why did Fox News largely refuse to cover the withdrawal of the final combat unit from Iraq?
The Associated Press reported that while MSNBC “devoted its entire prime-time footprint to the story” on Aug. 19, Fox News “devoted just under 10 minutes to the story, much of it during Shepard Smith’s 7 p.m. newscast.”
As we’ve previously noted, MRC’s studies of Iraq war news coverage largely have avoided any examination of Fox News, presumably because its war coverage isn’t any better, and may actually be worse, than other news outlets.