Iraq Reporters Hit Back at Claims They Are Biased on War

[sabra]

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002236478

Iraq Reporters Hit Back at Claims They Are Biased on War

NEW YORK After the latest round of blaming the media for distorted coverage in Iraq, which emerged this week from top Bush administraton officials, war reporters and editors strongly defended their coverage this weekend in a variety of venues, as violence in the country reached new levels.

Washington Post reporter Steve Fainaru, who recently completed a 14-month stint in Iraq, commented: "Everyone wants to read their view of the war in your story. To me the only issue is whether our stories are real or not. I never got complaints from the people who were involved in the subject matter of the stories.

"The job of soldiering over there is incredibly difficult. I have tremendous respect for those guys. The criticism completely misses the point. Iraq is on the verge of civil war. Where's the good news?"

Writing in The New York Times, Jeffrey Gettleman traced the recent upsurge in sadistic killings, then commented: "If this all sounds depressing, it is. That's how people here feel. I've been looking hard, but in two weeks I haven't found an Iraqi optimist.

[C_U_L8R]

1. The press should show these republican chickenhawks

what war REALLY looks like.... totally unfiltered.

[Make7]

2. Lara Logan of CBS puts things in perspective:

KURTZ: But critics would say, well, no wonder people back home think things are falling apart because we get this steady drumbeat of negativity from the correspondents there.

LOGAN: Well, who says things aren't falling apart in Iraq? I mean, what you didn't see on your screens this week was all the unidentified bodies that have been turning up, all the allegations here of militias that are really controlling the security forces.

What about all the American soldiers that died this week that you didn't see on our screens? I mean, we've reported on reconstruction stories over and over again…I mean, I really resent the fact that people say that we're not reflecting the true picture here. That's totally unfair and it's really unfounded.

...Our own editors back in New York are asking us the same things. They read the same comments. You know, are there positive stories? Can't you find them? You don't think that I haven't been to the U.S. military and the State Department and the embassy and asked them over and over again, let's see the good stories, show us some of the good things that are going on? Oh, sorry, we can't take to you that school project, because if you put that on TV, they're going to be attacked about, the teachers are going to be killed, the children might be victims of attack.

Oh, sorry, we can't show this reconstruction project because then that's going to expose it to sabotage. And the last time we had journalists down here, the plant was attacked. I mean, security dominates every single thing that happens in this country….So how it is that security issues should not then dominate the media coverage coming out of here?

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/03/26.html#a7669

[Lasher]

12. I watched this broadcast

She earned respect by standing up for herself, for her peers, and for the truth.

[babylonsister]

3. The truth would set many people free. What happened to that? nt

[LibDemAlways]

4. Last week Nightline made a deliberate attempt to

report happy news out of Iraq by covering the making of an Iraqi sitcom. Unfortunately, during a location shoot, word reached the cast and crew that their producer had been shot dead outside his office. Thus, even that blatent attempt to manufacture a "good news" story, ended in tragedy.

I wish one of the networks would grow a conscience and go back and take a critical look at their own culpability for this mess. They agitated for war, and shamelessly cheered on the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq. They allowed their reporters to be used as tools of the military by "embedding" them. Now, faced with the grim reality of the country in chaos, they are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Tell Americans the truth and be excoriated by the Bush Crime Family or make pathetic attempts to appease the WH and look like fools.

[Historic NY]

5. Send Rush Limpballs over.............

he can travel around and report the progress.

[MADem]

7. Hell, put that fat airbag in a Humvee, they won't need to uparmor it!

That blivet would absorb the blast of all but the worst IED, and serve as a rather fetid airbag as well.

[beltanefauve]

6. Interesting...

The media has displayed nothing but shameless boosterism for this war on the lead up to it, trying to sell it to us (when the poll numbers indicated that a majority was against it). We were subjected to Judith Miller and her bogus aluminum tube stories,for instance. The Washington Post was and continues to be pro-war in their bias. TV and cable "news" are nothing but pro-Bush infomercials. And now that the old lies aren't working anymore, even on the most ignorant of sheeple, Bush blames his old allies the media???

It'll be interesting to see what happens next. Will the media be shamed or threatened into submission or will they (finally!) become more emboldened?

[MadMaddie]

9. If the media continues to get blamed by the administration...

(This is excluding Fauxnews)

They are going to start reporting the facts....no cheery bullshit...They have been mocked and made fools of...even after kissing this administrations ass....and yet like all supposed allies of this administration....when they need a convenient scapegoat and refuse to take the blame for anything....they shit on the closest allie (the media).

If the media continues to tout the bullshit of this administration...they deserve everthing that will happen to them. Their credibility is forever linked to the * cabal administration.....:rofl:

[Catrina]

8. This is their opportunity to start telling the truth. They tried covering

up for this administration, thinking it would get them something, but when Bush's poll numbers plummeted, in the tradition of the Republican party, they had to 'blame someone else' so they picked the media this time.

I don't have much sympathy for them ~ they had to learn the hard way that this is a ruthless cabal with no loyalty to anyone ~ people are just fodder to them. The Bushes have an intense hatred for the media, because the Bushes all have a lot to hide and see the media as their biggest threat.

They may as well start reporting the truth. Covering up for the Bush regime hasn't done them much good.

I'll never forget watching MTP interviews with Condi, Cheney et al, lying through through their teeth and getting away with it. That should never happen again ~ these people have proven they're dangerous ~ there are too many bodies, some of them journalists, to leave no doubt about that. I hope this turns the tide ~ it's a little late, but better late than never ~

[LynnTheDem]

10. " as violence in the country reached new levels"

The FACTS are biased against bush & his MFing cabal.

:shrug:

[Theduckno2]

11. Hint to MSM. The truth is where the money is.

If this latest assault on the media by Bushco is left unchallenged, many more in the U.S. will lose interest in MSM outlets.

Less interest = Less ad revenues

Tell that to your shareholders! Lying for Bushco won't pay the bills.

I think Bushco is a criminal cabal.

"The weed of crime bears bitter fruit. Crime does not pay! The Shadow knows!"

This is my favorite part of the oldtime radio series, "The Shadow"

[radfringe]

13. they didn't give us the information

---snip---

KURTZ: Pam Hess, are there times when you want to report on something the military has done, perhaps something more positively, and you don't get much help from the Pentagon?

HESS: Just this week, as a matter of fact, we asked Donald Rumsfeld and Admiral Giambastiani about the successful hostage rescue in Baghdad which released the British hostages that had been there. One of their -- a number -- an American had been killed. And they punted on it. They said read the transcript from Baghdad. They didn't tell us about it.

So when we want to report something positive, a rescue, they didn't give us the information.

so how are reporters suppose to report all the "good news" when security is still a problem and "officials" won't pass along the information? I'm sure there are some "good things" going on - but how many journalists are willing to risk their lives to report on a school opening when you have to travel with an armed guard and dodge bullets/bombs to get to that school?

on edit:
I still say we need to call bush* on this - if things are soooo great and wonderful - then let him dress up in his fly-boy costume, land on an aircraft carrier, declare "VICTORY IN IRAQ" and bring our troops home