ASNE Blasts Congressman's Comments

By: Joe Strupp Updated at 2:15 p.m. Eastern Standard Time

A Georgia congressman who suggested in a newspaper op-ed that the media "were somehow complicit" in the death of U.S soldiers in Iraq received a harsh rebuke from the nation's top editors association, which called his comments "unsupportable and wholly uncalled for."

The American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) sent a letter to Rep. Jim Marshall, D-Ga., on Oct. 3, asking him to reconsider the "troubling and unfair comments" he made in a column published in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Sept. 22.

"This assertion is unsupportable by fact and wholly uncalled for," wrote ASNE President Peter Bhatia, executive editor of The Oregonian in Portland. "I can see no failure in the coverage or any reason at all to accuse the media of harming the situation or to write, as you did, that you feared the media had some responsibility for 'killing our troops.'"

Marshall could not be reached for comment Monday morning. Bhatia said the congressman had not responded to ASNE's letter as of Monday. "The purpose of the letter was simply to be on the record that what he was suggesting was outrageous," Bhatia told E&P. "There are some statements that shouldn't go unchallenged."

In the piece, Marshall wrote that media coverage gives a "falsely bleak picture" that "weakens our national resolve, discourages Iraqi cooperation and emboldens our enemy," according to ASNE.

"They are dwelling upon the mistakes, the ambushes, the soldiers killed, the wounded," the column continues. "Fair enough. But it is not balancing this bad news with 'the rest of the story,' the progress made daily, the good news. The falsely bleak picture weakens our national resolve, discourages Iraqi cooperation and emboldens our enemy."

The full text of the Marshall commentary is available at ASNE's Web site.