Gas prices are going up, foreclosures are going up, the price of food is going up, and American news coverage of the wars in Iraq and Afghhanistan is going down, dramatically. CBS News Vice President Paul Friedman explains that, “One of the definitions of news is change, and there are long periods now in Iraq when very little changes. Therefore, it’s difficult for the Iraq story to fight its way on the air against other news where change is involved.” CBS News no longer stations a single full-time correspondent in Iraq even though 150,000 United States troops are in that country.
The war in Afghanistan will eventually become the longest war in American history. ABC had spent 13 minutes covering Afghanistan between January and June of this year. CBS has spent eight minutes covering Afghanistan during the same time period. The war in Iraq is already the third longest war, and coverage of that war has gone from a weeday total of 1,157 minutes for all of 2007, to 181 total minutes through the Spring of 2008.
There is news. There are stories to be told. A relatively new website entitled “In Their Boots” is employing Internet technology and documentary film techniques to bring home the stories of American soldiers. The original launch of this new venture was met with a touch of skepticism since the producers have previoulsy worked on productions for and/or about politicians. It was stated that this was going to be an unbiased, nonpartisan project that would tell the stories of sacrifice made by soldiers and their families, and it appears to be holding true.
The website operates like a regular television show with a host, story of the week, interviews and discussion. Each episode is under ten minutes. The video below is part 1 of an episode telling the story of a young soldier readjusting to civilian life, the problems he faced and the support he found. The second part will air online August 6th.