War Isn't News

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While the Iraq and Afghanistan wars rage on, consistent coverage of these conflicts is disappearing from TV network news. Lara Logan, chief foreign correspondent for CBS News, recently vented her frustrations on "The Daily Show," telling host Jon Stewart, "If I were to watch the news that you hear here in the United States, I would just blow my brains out because it would drive me nuts." Almost halfway into 2008, the three major networks' nightly newscasts have shown just 181 weekday minutes of Iraq war coverage, compared with 1,157 minutes for all of 2007. CBS News, which no longer stations a single full-time correspondent in Iraq, has devoted the fewest minutes to the war, 51, versus 55 minutes on ABC and 74 minutes on NBC.