DU in the Media

Since the new year, stories about the DU controversy have been running
almost daily in every major British newspaper, with the Guardian
(1/8/01) and Independent (1/6/01) each running editorials calling for a
NATO investigation into DU's health effects. Altogether, the London
Independent has run 14 original articles; the London Times has run 12; the
Daily Telegraph has run 10; and the Guardian and its Sunday paper, the
Observer, have run eight.

Meanwhile, in the U.S.-- the country most responsible by far for DU
contamination-- newspapers have relegated most of their coverage to news
briefs and short wire stories. The only U.S. newspaper in the Nexis
media database to have run an editorial on the current controversy is the
Seattle  Times (1/6/01). Big picture questions about the extensive use of DU
since the Gulf War, its lasting impact on civilian populations and the record
of official deception around DU have been largely ignored in both print and
broadcast reports.

Apart from small wire stories, the New York Times has run only three
original pieces on the current DU controversy. The Washington Post and
Chicago Tribune have each run two original stories on the topic, while
the Los Angeles Times, USA Today and Christian Science Monitor have run one
apiece. Besides a sprinkling of news briefs and short wire service stories in
papers across the country (one of the most widely used was the Associated
Press' January 5 piece noting "many medical experts"  are "skeptical"...

[Since this was written the NYT and ABC have finally come around to
giving the matter some attention, only to dismiss it - AGF]
      



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                 ANDRE  GUNDER  FRANK

         1601 SW  83rd Avenue, Miami, FL.  33155 USA
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