War coverage

Canadian media have consistently given priority to covering the deaths of Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan; today’s Globe and Mail top-front page piece about the death of Simon Longtin of the Vandoos is an example.

In the U.S., however, a weariness with carnage seems to have set in, and there’s apparently lessening appetite in the media for the slaughterhouse that Iraq has become: “News coverage of the Iraq war fell sharply in the second quarter of the year, as the news media paid increased attention to the presidential campaign and the immigration debate, according to a detailed analysis to be released today,” said a New York Times report.

The story was based on the quarterly research report by the Project for Excellence in Journalism, the PEJ News Coverage Index. That study, which emphasizes U.S. media from a U.S. perspective, can be found here.