Yesterday on ABC World News with Diane Sawyer, Sawyer led with . . .
Diane Sawyer: It wasn't how it was supposed to go. Today in Iraq, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki held a press conference in which he declared he would be consulting with all political blocs to determine whether or not US forces should stay past December 2011. The Status Of Forces Agreement, more popularly known as the SOFA, signed in the last days of the Bush administration, was supposed to mean the Iraq War ended. In fact, let's go to footage of how we reported that November 27, 2008.
David Muir: We do have one other note from overseas tonight and this one is more promising. A milestone in Iraq today. Parliament ratified a security agreement that would require US troops to be out in three years. Marking the first clear timetable since the 2003 invasion. The vote was overwhelmingly in favor.
[Footage plays with headine "U.S.-IRAQ SECURITY DEAL Troops out in 3 years."]
David Muir (Con't): The US Embassy hailed the vote, saying the deal will "formalize a strong and equal partnership between the United States and Iraq." We turn now to Thanksgiving in . . .
Diane Sawyer: That was David Muir, sitting in for Charlie Gibson. And it wasn't just us, many outlets got it wrong. For example, this from CBS Evening News also from November 27, 2008 with Jeff Glor sitting in for Katie Couric.
Jeff Glor: In Iraq, it's finally down on paper tonight, a security deal that calls for all 150,000 US troops to leave the country by 2011, eight years after the invasion. And while the deal took many months to hammer out, the vote in Parliament today, wasn't even close. Elizabeth Palmer is in Baghdad.
Elizabeth Palmer: It was a fight to the finish. An Iraqi member of Parliament struggled to read out the final text of the agreement over the angry chants of opponents -- all of them followers of the anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. When the vote came, it was decisive with support from all of Iraq's main ethnic groups. The security agreement allows US troops to stay in Iraq for another 3 years but not on patrol like this. By July of 2009, they will largely be confined to base while Iraqi security forces take over. Maj Brandon Newton and his men work the streets of Dora, a Baghdad neighborhood that not long ago was a battle ground controlled by al Qaeda. Today though, the Americans can't remember their last attack.
Maj Brandon Newton: When you can't remember the last time something happened that's usually a good sign.
Elizabeth Palmer: So US forces have been able to switch focus, from combat to coaching Iraqi forces. Iraqi forces, flush with new skills and confidence, are now keen to take over but Lt Col Qadem [Jabr] like many admits he's glad to have backup. In areas where it's necesary, he says, the US forces support us when asked. That also reassures Iraqi civilians still learning to trust their new army and police.
Male Iraqi (unidentified): The Americans, I will miss them. The Americans never sleep but the Iraqis [indicates sleeping and then laughs].
Elizabeth Palmer: President-elect Obama has promised to pull all combat troops out within 16 months. But today's agreement allows some US forces to stay on in a support role. For once, the American and Iraqi political agendas appear to be in sync. Elizabeth Palmer, CBS News, Baghdad.
Diane Sawyer: Again, that was CBS Evening News, November 27, 2008. "A security deal that calls for all 150,000 US troops to leave the country by 2011." Wrong. To address how so many of us could have been so wrong, we now go to Martha Raddatz who is in North Carolina at Camp Lejeune where Secretary of Defense Robert Gates spoke earlier today. Martha, welcome. Martha? Martha, can you hear me? We seem to have be having some technical difficulties. Today, Nouri al-Maliki declared that if 70% of the members of political blocs were in favor of US troops remaining, that's what would happen. 70% seems like a high figure but it is not necessarily out of reach. For example, the Kurds make up approximately 30% and they are expected to fully support US troops remaining in Iraq beyond 2011. As I said earlier, ABC's Martha Raddatz is at Camp Lejeune where she covered Secretary Gates' speech today. Secretary Gates has been one of the leading forces on extending the US military presence in Iraq beyond 2011. So, as we go to break, and to show just how wrong we can all be, here's Vanity Fair's Todd S. Purdum speaking on PBS' Washington Week, Novembe 28, 2008.
Todd S. Purdum: Having Secretary Gates at Defense would continue stability there. Obviously President Obama would bring in his own perspective. But if he needs to wind down the Iraq War, which is what he said he'd do in his campaign, there's really no better way to do it -- in terms of managing the process at the Pentagon with the generals and the uniformed forces -- then having a person trusted like Secretary Gates be there to do that. It's almost a Nixon in China kind of way. As we know, Secretary Gates was part of the Iraq Study Group until he stopped being it to take the job and he comes from that realist school of Brent Scowcroft, people who were around the first Presidet Bush. So it looks like a pretty solid team.
The above? Excerpts from November 27th and November 28th of 2008 did broadcast as quoted. But the wrap around of Diane Sawyer from yesterday? Nope.
ABC, CBS and NBC did not see fit, on their evening news yesterday, to carry the news about the SOFA. But following a report by Dan Harris, Diane Sawyer was happy to turn World News into America's Funniest Home Videos, explaining, "And you have to see this video while Dan was there in the park -- did you see him there on the bench -- a persistent squirrel started fighting him for some camera time and food and you can see the showdown, look who won at ABC News.com/Word News, the squirrel by the way wants to come back."
This morning's papers contain many stories about Nouri's press conference. For example, Sahar Issa and Roy Gutman (McClatchy Newspapers) report, "Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Wednesday that he would engage in a months-long consultation with Iraq's many poliitical factions before deciding whether to ask the United States to keep some troops in the country. Al-Maliki said he would back a continued U.S. troop presence if he found that at least 70 percent of the country's political leadership favored such a move." In approximately 7 months, 'all' US troops were supposed to be out of Iraq so Nouri's announcement is big news . . . unless you count on broadcast news.
And the lack of interest in this development is all the more amazing when you grasp that broadcast news used the SOFA as their excuse to withdraw from Iraq. Never before in its history had ABC News not kept staff in a region where the US had an official (as opposed to covert) war. But the SOFA was their excuse to bail. They made a big to do about how they'd be using BBC News to cover Iraq. What was that, once, twice? Three times? And then they were done with the whole topic. CBS thought (and still does) that Elizabeth Palmer could clone herself and cover the entire MidEast. Most appalling was NBC because it's also the cable network MSNBC -- meaning it has to produce more 'product.' While CNN had a staff in Iraq, stationed in Iraq, what did MSNBC have?
Nothing. They used Richard Engel (or misused) almost as badly as CBS did Elizabeth Palmer.
(Of the three commercial, broadcast news programs, NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams has done the best job of covering Iraq. That's not saying much, granted, but Brian Williams has shown a real interest in the continuing events and Katie Couric and Diane Sawyer have not. The latter two also lacked the interest or ability to provide context to the events and probably the reason Nightly News dominates the ratings is because -- whether you agree with his take or not -- Brian Williams does know how to provide context.)
Mohammed Tawfeeq (CNN) quotes Nouri al-Maliki stating, "This is a big national issue, and it needs a national consensus." It's a real shame no one in the administration is making the same point here in the US.