Seven U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan in one day received scant attention in most media, observes Grumpy Editor.
Emphasized initially in the minimum coverage Sunday was that the fatalities were NATO personnel.
Nationalities of the dead later were confirmed to be Americans.
A roadside bomb killed six U.S. soldiers in an armored vehicle. Another U.S. soldier was the victim in a separate insurgent attack.
An example of limited coverage: The Wall Street Journal yesterday wrapped up the Sunday deaths in Afghanistan of “seven coalition service members” in one sentence in the sixth paragraph of a 17-paragraph story under a Tokyo dateline.
Other newspapers had little or no mention of the attacks.
CNN today, a bit late, reported "six U.S. troops were killed by an improvised explosive device Sunday in eastern Afghanistan, a U.S. official said."
Meanwhile, BBC and NBC News on Sunday promptly identified the deaths as U.S. personnel.
The casualties came on the same day donors led by the U.S. and Japan agreed to provide Afghanistan with $16 billion in development assistance.
Comments