Read More of the Same Day's Blog

As previews continue for President George Bush's primetime policy speech, the War in Iraq was yet again the Story of the Day. Yet NBC was the only network to lead with White House preparations. ABC and CBS both chose actual combat from downtown Baghdad as troops fought building-to-building down the insurgent-infested Haifa Street.

The Iraqi government is not waiting for Bush to announce a stepped-up commitment to fighting in Baghdad. So the weekend sweep of Haifa Street continued with US fighter jets and attack helicopters supporting overhead. "This is not the first time US forces have cleaned up this very street," CBS' Lara Logan reminded us, rerunning videotape from a similar operation in January 2005. "Locals call it Sniper Street," said ABC's Terry McCarthy (subscription required), who relied on exclusive CNN videotape to portray the action. He called the target of the sweep, "a concentration of Sunni insurgents and foreign fighters."

Logan observed that many Sunnis in Baghdad "believe the Shiite-led Iraqi government is using this crackdown as a cover to drive the Sunnis from the capital, with the help of US forces."

Andrew Tyndall 1/10/07 3:42:20 pm

© 2010 Tyndall Report