On Iraq, Not All News Deemed "Fit to Print"

"Many media outlets self-censored their reporting on Iraq," often out of fear of offending their audience, found a survey of more than 200 U.S. media personnel by American University's School of Communications. The "editing that went into content after it was gathered but before it was published" was significant. 15% of those reporting from Iraq said "they did not believe the final version" of their pieces, post-editing, "accurately represented the story." 20% of those reporting on Iraq from the U.S. "said material was edited for reasons other than basic style and length." One survey respondent wrote, "The real damage of war on the civilian population was uniformly omitted." In contrast, 92% said they had "no limits at all" on "the type of interviews conducted."