The Daily Background

ThinkProgress has some astute observations about the media’s coverage of Anna Nicole Smith’s death:

NBC’s Nightly News devoted 14 seconds to Iraq compared to 3 minutes and 13 seconds to Anna Nicole. CNN referenced Anna Nicole 522% more frequently than it did Iraq. MSNBC was even worse — 708% more references to Anna Nicole than Iraq.

Here’s two charts they compiled:

Meanwhile, over in Iraq, three American soldiers were shot to death in President Bush’s escalation yesterday and there was virtually no coverage of it. Instead our media is obsessing over whether or not Miss Nicole Smith choked on her own vomit. Maybe she had a tragic life, maybe she was mistreated by the media, or maybe she was a gold digger who perpetuated a negative stereotype of women during her years as a Playboy model, I see little point in judging her life. But in my mind, the media should be spending a little less time talking about her, and a little more time talking about the way things are going in Iraq.

In the time since Miss Nicole Smith died, American forces accidentally killed five to ten Kurdish soldiers in Mosul in a tragic friendly fire incident. A Kurdish leader said that the incident amounted to our soldiers “attacking the people who support them.” Have you heard more about this, or more about which pills they found in Miss Nicole Smith’s hotel room?

We’re spending $100,000 every single minute of every single day in Iraq, and an averge of more than three of our soldiers each day are dying (33 soldiers have died during the 9 days of this month so far). Call me crazy, but I don’t think the media should be devoting 700% more attention to any celebrity, no matter who it is.

Filed under: News Media, Z-TDB Blog