The Stan that "Time" Forgot

American Journalism Review wonders where all the Afghanistan coverage has gone. Indeed; between the October election and the plane crash this week, Afghanistan basically fell off the news map.

Only three news organizations--Newsweek, Associated Press and the Washington Post--have full-time reporters stationed in Kabul, the capital. Other major newspapers, such as the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times, rely on stringers in Afghanistan and correspondents based in New Delhi, India, to cover the region, a stark contrast to the hundreds of reporters pouring into Iraq since the war began. The New York Times uses a stringer, albeit a full-time one. Television networks have nearly disappeared.

With the establishment of a new government and building of infrastructure, a continuing U.S. military presence and the hunt for terrorists, Afghanistan is rife with stories of long-term consequence. Roy Gutman, a veteran Newsday correspondent who became its foreign editor in July, has long criticized the media for their lack of solid, in-depth coverage of what he calls one of the major conflicts of our time and the true beginning of the battle against al Qaeda. Now that major fighting is over, "it's very important to keep a spotlight on Afghanistan to see whether the U.S. government is able to manage it and able to succeed," he says.

Media executives quoted in the story make the point that there's no point in keeping a lot of staff there because so little that's dramatic is happening. There's a certain logic to that, except that the reconstruction of that country, or lack of it, is an essential story that readers need to know to decide whether the administration is doing its job of "draining the swamp" where terrorists breed.

The indispensible Chrenkoff, meanwhile, has a wrap of the good news from Afghanistan.