Afghanistan II: Untold Stories

Foreign visitors often have trouble understanding why our newspapers seem so big while having very little hard news in them. The obvious answer is, of course, that most of the paper is taken up by advertisements and that it is the ads that pay for the paper. Still, there are many stories that are covered superficially or, worse, not covered at all. The five-year war in Afghanistan is an example; once in a while there appears a brief paragraph or two, but by and large it is ignored. I realize that the war in Afghanistan, like the Iraq-Iran war, is difficult to report—journalists are not exactly welcome there. On the other hand, what about the public’s “right to know,” the right that was so grossly “violated” in Grenada?

As an example of constructive criticism, here are three items that could have been used to tell us a little about what is happening in Afghanistan. Any one of them would have made a good story. I will present them without comment, and I want you to decide whether the press is doing a good job of informing us.

SF

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Si Frumkin

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Foreign visitors often have trouble understanding why our newspapers seem so big while having very little hard news in them. The obvious answer is, of course, that most of the paper is taken up by advertisements and that it is the ads that pay for the paper. Still, there are many stories that are covered superficially or, worse, not covered at all. The five-year war in Afghanistan is an example; once in a while there appears a brief paragraph or two, but by and large it is ignored. I realize that the war in Afghanistan, like the Iraq-Iran war, is difficult to report—journalists are not exactly welcome there. On the other hand, what about the public’s “right to know,” the right that was so grossly “violated” in Grenada?

As an example of constructive criticism, here are three items that could have been used to tell us a little about what is happening in Afghanistan. Any one of them would have made a good story. I will present them without comment, and I want you to decide whether the press is doing a good job of informing us.