Some Newspaper Headlines on Baghdad Bombing Draw Fire : Media: Callers say dailies are ‘tool of Iraqis’ and ‘unpatriotic’ in reporting civilian deaths.

Telephone callers in Dallas said the leading newspaper there, the Morning News, has become a “tool of the Iraqis.” In Philadelphia, callers accused the Inquirer of being “against the American people.” In Miami, some of the callers thought the Herald “unpatriotic.”

The phones were ringing Thursday with anger over how at least some of the American press covered the allied bombing attack in Baghdad that Iraq says killed hundreds of civilians, including women and children. The Iraqis say the bombing hit a civilian bomb shelter. Allied military authorities said the building was a military command-and-control center.

The reaction was not universal. In some cities, such as Chicago and Atlanta, news coverage of the attack did not attract any unusual spate of calls or letters.

The difference seemed to be a matter of headlines.

The Washington Post banner read: “Bomb Strike Kills Scores of Civilians in Building Called Military Bunker by U.S., Shelter by Iraq.”

The public reaction was muted. “We just dropped some comics (out of the paper), and we got 200 letters in the last five days about it, but that is about it,” said Benjamin C. Bradlee, executive editor of the Washington Post.

The same was true in Atlanta.

“I got one call this morning from a guy who was trying to call CNN and couldn’t get through, so he called me,” said Ron Martin, editor of the Constitution and Journal.

The Constitution headline read: “Raids to Continue: Allies Insist Iraq Used Civilians as Shield.”

Nor was there much response at the Chicago Tribune--”U.S. Defends Baghdad Bombing Raid”--or the Detroit Free Press--”Civilian Deaths Raise Furor, U.S., Iraq Blame Each Other as World Sees Air War’s Toll.”

Editors at these papers said they were not trying to downplay the raid. Their stories and their headlines reflected the idea that readers already had the basic news from television. Their stories were moving on to analysis of the event.

But those papers where the headline seemed to focus on the deaths of Iraqi civilians seemed to touch a nerve.

“The readers are irate,” ombudsman John V. R. Bull wrote in a memo to Editor Max King at the Philadelphia Inquirer. They considered the paper’s headline “misleading” and a sign that the Inquirer “took the Iraqis’ word for it.” One caller said the paper printed “only what the Iraqis say, not what our government tells you.”

The Inquirer headline read: “Iraqis: 400 Civilians Killed; Bombs Hit a Bunker, U.S. Says.”

The Los Angeles Times also had a pointed response from readers. Again, the headline seemed to bother people most. The paper ran a banner that read: “Raid Kills Hundreds, Iraq Says; Claims Civilian Shelter Hit; U.S. Calls It Military Site.”

“The sense was we were aiding and abetting the Iraqis,” said Assistant Managing Editor Terry Schwadron. “We were taking their word for it.”

The Miami Herald also seemed to hit a nerve with its headline: “U.S. Bombs Baghdad Shelter, Killing of Civilians Sparks Battle for World Opinion.”

That, however, seems paltry compared to what occured at Cable News Network. The Atlanta-based news organization, whose reporter Peter Arnett was one of the handful of Western correspondents to actually report the story, received 1,576 calls Wednesday. Seventy percent of those were negative. The volume is about double what the network received each day before the war and on the high end of what it receives now.