Blackout of Afghanistan Pro-Withdrawal Voices

Blackout of

Pro-Withdrawal Voices

The newsletter Popular Information

(8/19/21) spoke to a “veteran communications professional who has

been trying to place prominent voices

supportive of the [Afghan] withdrawal

on television and in print”—and finding it “next to impossible.” “I can’t

even get TV bookers who frequently

book my guests to give me a call

back,” the promoter said:

In so many ways this feels like Iraq

and 2003 all over again. The media

has coalesced around a narrative,

and any threat to that narrative

needs to be shut out.

The blackout of pro-withdrawal voices comes amidst polling that suggests the US public overwhelmingly

supports withdrawal: 73%, for example, in a Hill/HarrisX survey (7/2–

3/21). Even after the overwhelmingly

negative media coverage, an August

28–September 1 ABC/Washington

Post poll found 78% support for

withdrawal—though about two-thirds

of those disapproved of Joe Biden’s

handling of the process.

Extra! The Newsletter of FAIR—The Media Watch Group October 2021 Vol. 34, No. 8