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The From WNYKRZZE in New York, this is NPR's On the Media. I'm Bob Garfield.

And I'm Brooke Gladstone. No one ever claimed helicopters with the safest way to get around in a war.

But when an American chopper went down near Baghdad on Wednesday, it was at the top of the news, both in print and on the air.

Good evening, on top of all news, both in print and on the air. With Brian Williams.

Good evening. On top of all the various dangers facing U.S. fighters in Iraq, tonight,

seven more Americans are dead in another helicopter crash.

This is World News with Charles Gibson.

Good evening. Today in Iraq, another chopper down.

In four years aboard, insurgents say they shot it down.

The U.S. military, however, isn't so sure.

Still, is it part of a disturbing new pattern?

It's hard to argue that it isn't news when, in all, six choppers go down in three weeks, but we've noticed that whenever a helicopter crashes in Iraq, it seems to garner more headlines than

almost any other kind of attack. And it's not simply a matter of casualties. Improvised explosive

devices were responsible for more American deaths over that same three-week period.

And so, as media watchers, we had to ask ourselves why the story resonates so loudly here.

We called Mark Bowden to help us find an answer.

He, of course, is the reporter who wrote the book Black Hawk Down about the failed American military campaign in Somalia. It was later made into a

movie. Mark, welcome to the show. Thank you, Brooke. So I guess one of the unintended consequences

of Black Hawk Down is that you've effectively been branded the go-to guy on helicopter crashes.

It's true. Whenever a Black Hawk goes down anywhere in the world, I get

called. So would you agree that helicopter crashes seem to be getting a lot of attention here

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