"Journalists are relaying a lot of information directly from the Pentagon."

The number of civilian casualties during bombing in Afghanistan has also been a point of contention. Some estimate that as many as 3,500 civilians were killed through the beginning of December. The actual number is far from clear, and tallies are often not even discussed on network newscasts.

"The full extent of civilian casualties is unknown. I think some American news media have made good efforts to find out, but I think they could do more," Collings said. "The BBC did a lot more coverage of civilian casualties than the American media.

"If I had to speculate, it may come back to this insular approach that maybe the public doesn"t want to know how terrible the war is."

The subject of civilian bombing victims has been Nazir"s largest problem with the American media. "If you want to be objective you have to watch the European media," Nazir said, adding that there is some backlash in the region toward the way news is reported on American stations. "The American media has been very jingoistic."

Junger said he thought the American media has done a good job covering the conflict, but he did take issue with what he felt was a misrepresentation of the army with which he traveled.

"Probably the most notable thing is that many of them had a pretty clichd opinion of the northern alliance that was already formed they seemed very ready to write them off as a "bunch of warlords." That"s a great insult to the leaders over there who are very responsible, kind men. It really pained me to see them dismissed like that," Junger said.