CBS - IRAQ STRANGLES OVERSEAS COVERAGE

Major overseas stories are not receiving adequate coverage -- and often no coverage at all -- because the television networks are devoting so many resources to the war in Iraq, CBS London bureau chief Jennifer Siebens has acknowledged. In an interview with the CBS blog Public Eye, Siebens, who is also a CBS News vice president, said, "We work in a world of finite resources -- every corporation in America does. And to the extent that the war becomes the single focus, it makes it harder to cover other topics." Making things especially difficult, Siebens indicated, is that for the first time in any war, journalists have become targets. "The need to protect our people creates this whole other cost center I've never seen," she said.

21/03/2007