ABSTRACT

This chapter discusses media organizations all presented the end of combat operations as a welcome development and praised the efforts of America's fighting forces; there was less agreement with other aspects of the administration's drawdown frame. There is therefore substantial evidence for media independence as journalists for national print, broadcast, and cable outlets constructed competing storylines that undercut much of Obama's version of what America had accomplished in Iraq and what its future prospects might be. America's leading media organizations, however, were not yet inclined to turn their attention from the Iraq chapter of the national security storyline. The media tone rarely struck a positive note, and the general thrust of the outlets' stories gave lie to the official US narrative of gradual political, economic, and security progress in Iraq. Quotes from disgruntled and discouraged Iraqi citizens served to provide a backdrop for the wider media theme of a nation foundering politically as well as economically.