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Tradition dictates that headlines on the eve of Thanksgiving should consist of light holiday fare. Lead with congested highways as families pack in the car to head for grandmother's house--and close with a heartwarming feature involving a turkey. This year, sure enough, Thanksgiving was Story of the Day. But the mood was clouded by yet more horrible news from Iraq.

All three networks covered the awful report from the United Nations about the record-breaking number of civilian deaths from sectarian violence, more than 3,700, during the month of October. NBC broke with tradition starkly, assigning Jim Miklaszewski at the Pentagon to lead with the "alarming" bloodshed. He quoted the UN's Jan Egeland: "There is no place on Earth where so many civilians are killed by blunt violence."

The other two networks assigned the UN report to their Baghdad-based correspondents: ABC's Hilary Brown (no link) called the country "drenched in blood" and CBS' Elizabeth Palmer pointed out that "women are being singled out for abuse by religious extremists."

Also from the Pentagon, ABC's Jonathan Karl covered the warning by Gen James Conway, commandant of the Marine Corps, that the continued stressful deployment of his troops is sapping their battle readiness: "The Marines are designed to be an invading force. They were never supposed to occupy Iraq."

Andrew Tyndall 11/27/06 3:11:02 pm

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