I was reading an AP story about the terrible suicide bombing that happened today, and I noticed something odd.

Here was the headline:

Suicide car bomb kills US soldier, wounds 18

And here are the first two paragraphs of the story (emphasis mine):

By SAMEER N. YACOUB, Associated Press Writer Sun Jun 8, 3:04 PM ET

BAGHDAD - A suicide truck bomber who concealed his explosives under tanned animal hides struck a U.S. patrol base Sunday in northern Iraq, killing one U.S. soldier and wounding 18 other Americans, U.S. and Iraqi officials said.

Two Iraqi contractors working at the base in Tamim province also were wounded, according to a brief statement from the military.

So...the headline is incorrect, as 20 people altogether were wounded. Now, I know what most likely happened was a busy copyeditor read the lead graf and wrote the title based on that. So, that part of it can be written off as a journalistic error, perhaps.

But isn't the bigger problem the inherent racism or U.S.-centrism, or however you want to interpret it, of the reporting itself? The first paragraph only mentions the Americans killed and wounded (which, do NOT misunderstand me, I am not saying is not important and sad news. I am married to a U.S. veteran and if you want to know my position more clearly please PM me). Is the idea that U.S. readers will be less interested or have less sympathy if the AP mentions anyone but Americans in the first paragraph?

I'm not proposing some kind of conspiracy theory. I'm just very alert to biases in my news. I do not watch any kind of local news (come on, I live in L.A., our local news is lampooned nationally and for good reason) and I don't even bother with the network news because of the infotainment factor. How anyone can watch it after seeing Network and Broadcast News is beyond me! PBS and the BBC have decent, straightforward reporting but I still prefer to get my news from reading the newswires, just because in general I take stuff in better through reading than through listening.

I'm sure taken as a whole our reporting has a U.S. bias, but this was just such a blatant example of, as I said, anything from bias to out-and-out racism. I will make a (probably racist) generalization from the name of the writer that he probable doesn't see nonwhite people as less important, but there's no way at all to know whether he wrote the story this way or it was edited this way, etc.

Here is a possible (and medicated, so give me a break ) rewrite:

BAGHDAD - A suicide truck bomber who concealed his explosives under tanned animal hides struck a U.S. patrol base Sunday in northern Iraq, killing one U.S. soldier and wounding 20 other people, U.S. and Iraqi officials said.

The wounded were 18 Americans as well as two Iraqi contractors working at the base in Tamim province, according to a brief statement from the military.

Okay so that's one crappy example of how our reporting could be less biased. I have no problem singling out our fallen soldier, but I just don't see why the wounded can't be counted together, and especially in the headline. I did email the AP about that headline because racist or not it is incorrect, but I couldn't help throwing in a slight dig about the reporting bias. I'm sure they're over it right now. :slaugh:

EDIT: (sorry, I know you've already been critted by my Wall of Text)

Iraq suicide bomber kills U.S. soldier, wounds 18

Sun Jun 8, 1:17 PM ET

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A vehicle driven by a suicide bomber blew up near a patrol base in Iraq on Sunday, killing one U.S. soldier and wounding 18 others, U.S. forces said.

Two Iraqi contractors were also wounded in the attack in Kirkuk province, about 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said in a statement.

[stanley]

sadly, "collateral damage" meaning civilians for instance, or foreign nationals RARELY gets reported.

Our media barely reports the American casualties, (remember the censorship of offloading the caskets of the dead for instance), and the spin doctors are doing EVERYTHING they can to minimize the awareness of the HORROR that is war, and this war in particular.

I am sure if you read the Iraqi account of the same incident, you would find the headline read "Two Iraqi's injured in attack on US military base, several Americans were also killed or wounded".....

I am a Vietnam Vet... we got the American casualty report every night on the evening news... But I dont recall a single story telling me how many SOUTH Vietnamese (our allies) were being killed... In Vietnam we lost almost 59000 KIA, the South Vietnamese literally lost MILLIONS.....

I cant recall reading any headlines in the stories about World War 2 that spoke about the "local" folks who were killed, the French civilians or the Belgians or Dutch.... And I certainly cant remember coming across any discussing the Filipino or Chinese civilians who were slaughtered as a result of the war in Asia... at least not until we dropped the Atomic Bomb and EVERYONE was SHOCKED at the loss of life..... or after we discovered the extermination camps in Europe "publicly" and could no longer deny their existence....

So, yeah, I think you are right... part of it is racism, but an equally large part is probably some weird form of "nationalism" in the media, trying to put a positive spin on our involvement, even if it is only by omitting one side of the story....

added info:

from todays San Jose Mercury News:

http://www.mercurynews.com/nationworld/ci_9519128

Suicide car bomb kills US soldier, wounds 20

By SAMEER N. YACOUB Associated Press Writer
Article Launched: 06/08/2008 12:08:18 AM PDT

BAGHDAD—A suicide truck bomber who concealed his explosives under tanned animal hides struck a U.S. patrol base Sunday in northern Iraq, killing one U.S. soldier and wounding 18 other Americans, U.S. and Iraqi officials said.

Two Iraqi contractors working at the base in Tamim province also were wounded, according to a brief statement from the military.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

so, some of the copy editors actually got it right....

Originally Posted by stanley

so, some of the copy editors actually got it right....

The San Jose Mercury News is an underrated paper.

[OakSmokeMJA]

Originally Posted by stanley

So, yeah, I think you are right... part of it is racism, but an equally large part is probably some weird form of "nationalism" in the media, trying to put a positive spin on our involvement, even if it is only by omitting one side of the story....

Beautifully said.

I agree Stanley, this weird form of "nationalism" seems to be the result of a sort of consent manufacturing machine (big media) usually driven by those that hold power.

It is not only sad, it is deadly.

[Nailhead]

If Americans in general cared about the Iraqi's getting killed, the news would report on it. This isn't about news bias, but American arrogance. American's generally only care about the people who live within our invisible borders, that's the American attitude, that's why most American's don't have a clue what is going on in other parts of the world.

There are some exceptions, when the news involves white people. If the people in Darfur were white then people in this country would actually give a damn. It's pretty fucked up, but that's how American's generally are. Don't blame the media, they are based on ratings so if these issues sparked American interest they would report on them accordingly.

When you see a commercial to help feed hungry children in other parts of the world, what do you do? Most of you simply change the channel, or wait for it to end. Very few people actually pick up the phone and call to make a donation, or if they do donate they give very little, like $20 or so, as if feeding hungry children in Africa is less important than a daily fix of Starbucks coffee.

It's not the news reporting that offends me, it's the selfish attitude of most Americans that offends me.

[tokermom]

You are SO right DIG. All Human Beings are important & you are justified in your feelings about this News Bias! Unfortunatly, I don 't see anything changing in the near future.