Do American still care - think not

While I'm in Afghanistan doing public affairs for NATO, my friend James is doing the same for U. S. Forces in Iraq. The article below is from James. Interesting stuff.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A national survey released last month listed the news stories Americans followed most closely in 2008. Number one was the U.S. economy. Second were gasoline prices. Third, the Wall Street bailout.

Missing from the list of 15 topics? The Iraq war, where more than 4,200 Americans and at least 90,000 Iraqis have died. It was the first time since the war started in 2003 that Iraq didn't make the list, which is put out by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.

"People have gotten lost in the economy," said the Rev. Jim Lewis, a founder of West Virginia Patriots for Peace. "People have gotten lost in the elections."

In 2007, Iraq made up about a fifth of the print, online and broadcast news content analyzed at Pew's Project for Excellence in Journalism, said Mark Jurkowitz, associate director of the project.
In 2008, war coverage dropped by 75 percent, dwarfed by stories on the economy and the presidential election, he said.

For the week of Jan. 5, the war made up less than 1 percent of news content -- behind stories like the death of John Travolta's son, Jurkowitz said.

It's getting harder for many media organizations to cover Iraq, Jurkowitz said.