At the end of ABC‘s This Week (11/18/12), Martha Raddatz presented a brief viewer-mail segment:
Martha Raddatz (photo: IPFW)
And finally, “Your Voice This Week.” Today’s question comes from Cheryl Robinson, who writes, “What happened in Benghazi was terribly tragic, and now we’re hearing of another Middle Eastern war on the brick. Let us and you, the media, not forget about the war that our own kids are fighting for us in Afghanistan. Why is there so little coverage?”
Well, because, unfortunately, very few people feel the way you do, Cheryl. There is a war-weariness with the public, and outside of campaign season, the war is not often mentioned. The administration talks about it largely to say we are leaving, but we should all remember that nearly 70,000 Americans are still in Afghanistan, facing death and injury, and we should remember we have promised our combat troops will remain there for another two years.
“The war is not often mentioned”–says a reporter for a network whose nightly news show is watched by 7 million to 8 million people a week. So the people told ABC they didn’t want to know about Afghanistan–they insisted on learning instead what John McCain had to say about Benghazi?