J$P Instant Transcript! The News Watch panel takes on media coverage of Bob Woodruff.

From Fox News Watch, February 4 2006:

ERIC BURNS [FOX NEWS]: Since the war in Iraq began, more than 2,200 American soldiers have died, as of Friday five of them this week. Of those, more than 1,700 have been killed in action. More than 4,000 Iraqi military and police have been killed. 61 journalists have also been killed. Now it's been a week since we learned that ABC news anchor Bob Woodruff and cameraman Doug Vogt were seriously injured by a bomb in Iraq. On Monday, CNN's Christiane Amanpour told Larry King: "The war in Iraq has basically turned out to be a disaster, and journalists have paid for it." Also on Monday, this headline ran as the lead story on the front page of the New York Times. Note particularly the phrase: "Field Reports Were a Ratings Strategy." Neil, since then the Times has said that that was an insensitive thing to say. But was it a true thing to say? Was Bob Woodruff out there as a ratings strategy, as opposed to a journalistic strategy?

NEIL GABLER [MEDIA WRITER]: Well I don't know how you separate the two in this case. I mean, to say that he was out there on a journalistic strategy or a ratings strategy--he was out there doing his job. And his job is to report. Bob Woodruff saw himself as a reporter, not as an anchorman, or not only as an anchorman.

JIM PINKERTON [NEWSDAY]: Just a little bit of clarification here. It was a ratings strategy and a journalism strategy, both. They're not--

GABLER: They're not mutually exclusive.

PINKERTON: Exactly. And it's not wrong to include them. I happened to be watching that little sequence, and I can tell you that Woodruff was in Palestine or the West Bank before going to Iraq. And they made a big deal, well now I'm going to Iraq and I'll see you there tomorrow night. And I must tell you, I sort of thought, well I'm going to watch. Because it's kind of dangerous in Iraq and I sort of, obviously, had no idea all these tragic events were going to happen, but it was an eyeball-getter for ABC, and they knew it. And the Times can apologize if they want, but the Times was right.

JANE HALL [AMERICAN UNIVERSITY]: I think that the people at ABC News were outraged about this. They said, does the New York Times correspondent go there to build circulation? I mean, he could have gone to Disney World if he wanted to build circulation and boost Disney at the same time. He was risking his life to some degree, and he was injured, and he was doing stories that were more positive, which is what the administration has been asking for.

GABLER: And that's the irony of all this.

BURNS: And, Cal, he has been getting so much coverage that the military has been complaining about it to UPI's Pentagon reporter. And we're going to get mail about this, we always do. "You wouldn't spend this much time talking about any one of those 2,200 soldiers." Good point?

CAL THOMAS [COLUMNIST]: Yes, I think this is another example of media self-absorption. And only self-absorption by certain media people. Can anyone honestly believe that, God-forbid, if someone with Fox News, for example, had been injured or killed while covering this war, that the outpouring of sympathy from the major liberal media organs like the New York Times would have been as great? I don't.

BURNS: Oh, Cal, that's a pretty strong--

THOMAS: I know it is.

BURNS: There would have been as much coverage--

THOMAS: I don't believe there would be. Not by the big networks and not by the New York Times based on their attitude toward so-called conservative media.

HALL: Wait, wait, can I-- Wait a minute, wait a minute, I've got to respond to that. I think that's really just overly broad, to be kind about it. I mean, I think that journalists are interested, I think viewers are interested. I think you can fault the tv press for emphasizing the ratings aspect of this. Because ABC tried, I think, I mean obviously they've gotten viewers. Obviously somewhere, somebody is not unhappy that they've gotten attention. But the point is, he is a symbol of the news division. And the New York Times, a few weeks ago, had an incredibly piece about these soldiers trying to fight back from these improvised explosive devices, and how many people there are. It's not that this hasn't been covered.

GABLER: You can blame the media, it seems to me, for not giving enough attention to our casualties. But I'm reminded of an old parody of the New York Post, that says: "Nuclear War. Michael Jackson and 200 Million Others Die." I mean, that's the way, that's a fact, and it's news that Bob Woodruff was injured.

PINKERTON: When reporters cover casualties, they get in trouble for covering the casualties too hard. So when this Woodruff thing happens, it's big news. 400,000 Americans were killed in World War II, and yet one of the most famous casualties of all, and we've talked about him many times on this show over the last decade, was Ernie Pyle, the reporter. I mean, it's just the reality that celebrities and reporters get attention. Heather Locklear's divorce is going to get more attention than a lot of tragedies around the world in the next few months, I guarantee you.

GABLER: That's a fact of life.

THOMAS: Let me make another point here. I don't frankly understand, as a husband and a father, why someone like Bob Woodruff, who is married and has young children, or David Blum of NBC who went before him--good reporters, not saying anything about their credentials--would put themselves where there's no front line, and where you can get killed in the most surprising ways, in such jeopardy. I think that journalists have a responsibility first of all to their families. And children have a right to have a father in their home. To put yourself in something that is completely chaotic like this, frankly, I think is irresponsible.

GABLER: Wait, it's their job.

BURNS: Well no, it' s not necessarily your job as a reporter to be at a certain place in Iraq.

PINKERTON: Hold on. Of course it's your job. Go where the news is.

BURNS: There's news in other places than Iraq, Jim.

PINKERTON: The conceit of the nightly news is that they're covering World News Tonight. And I give ABC credit for sending Woodruff over there. I give Woodruff credit for being brave. It's a tragedy what's happened, but that's sort of the way it works.

HALL: It's a dangerous place for soldiers and for journalists, and journalists are trying to tell the story, and they should be applauded for that.