OPINION: Negative Media Coverage Disincentivizes Ending War

“US marines evacuating staff of Kabul embassy on Aug. 15, 2021” Photo by Sargent Isaiah Campbell

Zach Richards is a junior studying history and an opinion writer for The New Political. 

Please note that these views and opinions do not reflect those of The New Political.

After nearly twenty years in the country, the US military withdrew from Afghanistan, marking the end of the longest war in US history. 

The United States occupied Afghanistan for twenty years and failed to establish a stable government. Additionally, at the time of the withdrawal, the US neglected to adequately prepare for a scenario where the Afghan government could collapse as fast as it did. Regardless of the mistakes made, President Biden's decision to withdraw was ultimately the correct one.

If the United States could not set up a stable Afghan government over two decades, it seems unlikely they would have been able to do it had they stayed longer. A key objective of the initial invasion -- retribution for 9/11 -- had been achieved in 2011 when US forces killed Osama Bin Laden, and the US should have withdrawn then.

The best argument for staying in Afghanistan is the well-documented human rights abuses the Afghan people will now face under the Taliban. While most Americans forgot about the conflict overseas and generation Z is too young to remember it, the War in Afghanistan has a death toll in the tens of thousands on both sides. We have failed to properly recognize the loss of innocent lives and the ultimate debt the US will be paying for years to come. The repercussions of the war have just begun. 

The largely negative coverage of the withdrawal has coincided with a drop in President Biden's approval rating, leading to a widespread belief that these two events are correlated. A poll conducted by the Chicago Council Surveys in July found that 70% of Americans supported the withdrawal of US combat forces from Afghanistan. Despite this, Biden's net approval rating dropped over ten points since the last day the poll was taken. This decline coincided with negative media coverage of Biden's withdrawal, which earned disapproval from 61% of Americans.

Media outlets such as NBC, CNN, and The New York Times have given far more coverage to the tragedies of the withdrawal than the tragedies of the war itself. Since we expect media outlets to negatively cover the ending of a war, future presidents will be incentivized to continue fighting wars, regardless of the best option.

On Feb. 29, 2020, former President Donald Trump signed a deal with the Taliban to withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan by May 2021. In return, the Taliban agreed to stop attacking US troops, stop harboring terrorist groups, and become responsible for any individuals or groups who may threaten the US. There was no enforcement mechanism for the Taliban to follow their end of the deal. Since it was evident they planned to take over the country once American troops withdrew, the Taliban had every reason to follow through with their end of the deal.

Biden delayed the withdrawal but promised the remaining 2,500 American troops would be out of the country by Sept. 11. He later set a more specific date for Aug. 31. Until the airport bombing on Aug. 27, there had been no combat-related deaths of any American servicemembers since Trump's deal with the Taliban.

Some have argued that the 2,500 US troops should have stayed in Afghanistan since none of them had died in combat since February 2020. This status quo was only possible, however, because of the deal Trump signed with the Taliban. Had Biden chosen to break the agreement and keep troops in Afghanistan, the Taliban likely would have attacked. This could have led to the deployment of more American troops and a much more fatal conflict. Therefore, withdrawing the troops was the best strategic decision for the US military.

While withdrawing the troops was a notable decision, there were likely other factors that contributed to the decline of Biden's approval rating. However, even the perception that this decline was because of negative coverage of the withdrawal from Afghanistan could teach future presidents the wrong lesson: ending an unpopular war could lead to a barrage of negative coverage that drops their approval rating.

Negative media coverage of presidential administrations is inevitable and often necessary. Still, there is evidence to suggest the media coverage of Afghanistan does not reflect the facts of the withdrawal and rather a bias against ending the war.

Evidence of this bias comes from various media outlets inviting talking heads to argue against the withdrawal without disclaimers saying that they're on defense contractor boards and personally profited from the war continuing. For example, Richard Haass spoke on MSNBC, criticizing the decision to withdraw. However, the network did not specify that Haass sits on the board of Lazard, an investment company that seeks out companies in the defense industry, which have made a substantial amount of money from the war in Afghanistan. 

Further evidence of a bias against the withdrawal comes from contrasting how much more coverage media outlets, especially cable news, gave to Afghanistan during the withdrawal than they were during the war.

It was always a losing situation for the Afghan people, who would either have to endure a civil war with the Taliban or oppression under the Taliban. The media should have emphasized the Afghan people, such as the 1,468 civilians who died in the war in 2020. The sudden burst of news coverage about the Afghan people does not seem to reflect a genuine concern for their suffering but a bias against the withdrawal. This disparity in coverage was intentional; top-level executives at news outlets made the active choice to downplay the tragedies of war and emphasize the highs of ending an ongoing conflict.

This incongruity in coverage is also evident from the Kabul airport bombing on Aug. 27 that killed thirteen American service members and 60 Afghan civilians. These deaths are tragic, which is one of the best arguments for withdrawing from Afghanistan: saving lives in the long run. Over 2,400 American soldiers have died in combat since the war started. Yet, very few of these deaths received anywhere near as much coverage on national news as the Kabul airport bombing. 

Suppose a presidential administration cares about how the media covers its actions. In that case, their incentive is clear: the media will not give much coverage to American service and civilian deaths due to combat. Still, they will provide wall-to-wall coverage during the end of the war. This idea raises questions about the neutrality of the media regarding the United States' foreign entanglements.