Media too polarized on Iraq news: panel

[leftchick]

<snip>

Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, an Iraqi photojournalist, said it was wrong to say journalists were ignoring good news.

"It's a civil war, people are getting killed every single day, every hour ... everywhere in Iraq," he said. "It's a civil war and we're still shying away from the word civil war."

Zaki Chehab, political editor of London-based Arab newspaper Al Hayat, said security had deteriorated so much in the past year that it was no longer possible for Arab or Iraqi journalists to travel safely outside Baghdad.

Reuters Baghdad Bureau Chief Alastair Macdonald said the agency's about 70 Iraqi staff in some 18 cities around the country were finding it increasingly difficult to work because of sectarian tensions, to the extent that journalists had been forced to leave towns after receiving death threats.

"We have a lot of people very worried about exposing themselves as journalists," Macdonald said, adding that writing about reconstruction was difficult when security was so bad.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060406/ts_nm/iraq_media_dc_1

[Solly Mack]

1. "It's that the complete story is not being told."

And that's true

You can tell me a school is being built and I'll think "that's good" BUT - and this is the important but for me - how does that school being built change all the death and destruction - that's increasingly escalating?

It doesn't.

Yes, I understand the sense of accomplishment involved in a new school...I understand the potential good of the act

BUT

claiming the new school somehow negates from the death and destruction is bullshit...and Bush and his co-horts do just that. Attempt to claim "it's all good" because a new school was built.

It's really hard to get excited about a new school when students are being blown to bits.

It's like taking 1 teeny tiny baby step forward and 50 huge, life altering, steps back.

So don't try and sell me on the good...because the dead and the dying matter.

I lost my entire family to a bomb but I have a new school?(so somehow that's a good thing?)

C'mon now...give me a fucking break.

[leftchick]

3. and then there are the new schools the kids can not get to

because it is too dangerous....

IRAQ: Education hampered by sectarian violence, say officials

03 Apr 2006 12:57:10 GMT

Source: IRIN

BAGHDAD, 3 April (IRIN) - Children's education is being severely affected by ongoing sectarian violence, say officials at the Ministry of Education.

"Teachers have informed us that a high percentage of students aren't attending class, especially primary schools students," said senior ministry official Sarah Obeid. "The main reason for this is their families' fears due to the increase of sectarian violence."

According to Obeid, at least 30 percent of Iraqi students are not attending school, with the situation much worse in districts of the capital, Baghdad, where violence has been most in evidence. "The violence between Sunnis and Shi'ites is affecting innocent children," Obeid added.

Some parents have also noted growing discrimination in schools along sectarian lines. "Some teachers were treating my two sons very badly," said Abu Muhammad, a father of two, who recently removed his children from the school in question.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/0c85cee1eaa279e035629ffeced3a894.htm

[Solly Mack]

6. Exactly

I have no doubt that some wonderful acts of kindness and just acts of good old human decency are taking place in Iraq....but so?

They in no way outweigh the bad that is happening in Iraq.

A neighbor helps another neighbor
A soldier brings extra food to a family he has come to know
Iraqis pool money to buy a soldier a watch because his broke(as happened with my husband - the Iraqis presented it as a gift to my husband for treating them with respect "unlike some Americans" - exact quote)

Decent acts. Acts of kindness. "Good" things...

but so?

None of that changes anything about Iraq....yes, it made a difference in individual lives...but the "whole story" ain't exactly one made up of "good news"...

Why pretend it is?

[anotherdrew]

8. that watch isn't an IED trigger is it?

all it would take is a weak radio signal transmited every few seconds, I'd open it up and check.

[Solly Mack]

12. LMAO - you're kidding, right?

ROFLMAO

OMG! LMAO

Sorry - But I can't take that serious at all

You know, not every kindness comes with a bomb attached. To even assume something like that...oh, golly. LMAO

Damn.

On a serious note - why would you even think Iraqis would act in such a manner? You can't go through life assuming people are out to blow you up.

It's unreal...I tell of a kindness done my husband and instead of appreciating the fact that in the middle of hell, humans reached beyond all the inhumanity and death to touch each other in a positive way and you turn those wonderful people into bombers. Disgusting

[anotherdrew]

14. I wan't going to respond but...

humanity? positive? I hope I never have to "choose" to give an occupying soldier presents to thank them for treating me like a human being.

As for why I said anything, I just recently read a story about how they are not even sure HOW some roadside-bombs are being triggered. About how some soldiers suspect local Iraqi's are placing a transmitter of somekind on/in their vehicles as they leave bases because the roadside bombs somehow know to hit a truck full of people and not a truck full of supplies. So, I'm just saying, careful is a good thing to be when in Iraq, no matter how nice some of the people seem.

[Solly Mack]

15. Oh but I was hoping you would

Knowing absolutely nothing at all about anything to do with what happened, you make assumptions based on nothing but what you think to be true. You also choose, without knowing anything about what happened, to put a negative spin on it.

Why not ask - instead of assume?

You labor under the illusion that human kindnesses don't take place even in the middle of horrible injustices. But they do ... whether that sits well with your carefully nurtured reality or not.

Now, a basic human kindness isn't "good news" and never will be. At last I hope no one equates treating people like humans with "good news" - it's what we're supposed to do.

It's damn tragic that a human kindness from an American soldier is so rare that it is so appreciated...beyond tragic - but it was much more than that - but you don't know that...

Instead you choose to turn something that meant the world to my husband into something ugly and sordid. He cherishes that watch. Not because he thinks he did anything noble or brave or courageous or special - but because in the midst of everything happening to the Iraqis, a connection was made. A basic human connection. In the middle of death and destruction - a bond was formed.

But without knowing that he made friends with the men who gave him that watch...some of whom still keep in contact...you decide you know the score...that you know what really happened. Without knowing a damn thing about anything, you sat in judgment. Not just of him - but of his Iraqi friends as well.

Yeah, true - a soldier can't be too careful...but then neither can the Iraqis. Trust isn't exactly a word that comes to mind when thinking of Iraq. And who can blame the Iraqis? I don't trust most of the soldiers I know.

When he left for Iraq in 2003 ...I told him to keep his humanity...that I would much rather he died than to lose his humanity. Meant it too. Still do. It was a hard thing to say to him - and it was a hard thing for him to hear. Neither one of us support this war crime - but we weighed our options and he went... He was lucky. Never killed anyone. Wasn't terribly wounded - and the injuries he got he received from a fellow soldier (idiot driver was acting the fool and wrecked, injuring my husband) and Halliburton(he caught a 3rd world intestinal disease from the food KBR supplied)
His hardest time was after he turned in some Marines for war crimes(he got the watch at this time). His company went after him tooth and nail. They made life hard for him - but he had his Iraqi friends and frankly, the people he met in Iraq meant more to him than those within his company. My husband went to a war where he had no enemies and where he sought to make no enemies. How fucked up is that?

I'm sorry I got testy with you. You're not my enemy. Please accept my apologies.

[anotherdrew]

16. I see...

Hey no problem here, no need for apologies, it's surely not pleasant for you to read that worry I had. I was just concerned for him and it sounded like it had just happened very recently and perhaps time was of the essence and better a paranoid warning than to say nothing; sorry for any alarm that might have caused.
In context of what all went on, it seems like a very nice fine thing to receive such a token of human decency.
Rest assured that any conclusions I jump to are always marked 'tentative, pending more info' - and I did only suggest checking it just in case, not that it was for sure any such thing. One thing for sure, we need more people like your husband in the military. My thanks for his excellent service. Best wishes to both of you.

[leftchick]

18. Solly this is the post of the day

or week, or month or year. Thank you for sharing.

[skeeters2525]

10. There is no good news

And never will be. What you have is a foreign Country killing anyone they damn well please for god only knows what reason. They actually think it was for 9/11. We have a brainwashed military. Makes me proud to be an American.

Trillions of dollars and some kid in Iraq gets a coloring book from Bush. Sure helps get over the fact that his family was killed by our death squads.

Want good news, Evildoer Bush. Go there and show us. And not at 3 in the morning with your lights off. Walk down the street and show us alll the great you have done.

C'mon Coward, don't worry, the media will ignore your backdrop of Sesame Street.

[daleo]

11. Iraq had plenty of schools under Hussein

So this whole "building a school" idea is bogus. It isn't right to brag about building schools if the invasion is responsible for destroying them. The same comment goes for most of this supposed good news.

[Solly Mack]

13. Yeah, that's kinda my point

:)

[daleo]

19. Yes, but it is such a good point that it bears repeating. n/t

[Solly Mack]

20. True. Very true

:)

[tinfoil tiaras]

17. Exactly.

I am so sick and tired of people bitching and moaning that "all the good stuff never gets reported." Er...does anything good happen in Iraq. No, but if it does it's very small. Way more bad happens than good. Its that damn "liberal media" bullshit the right is pulling again. WTF. The mainstream media is not "liberal", and I do belive that we have been over this, my right wing bretheren. When I become a journalist (my aspiration), I'm gonna expose all the shit (assuming its still going on...yeah the Iraq shit will still be going on) of this pointless war. I read the Clarion Ledger every day and STILL, i see bullshit letters bitching about how the media never reports anything good, about how liberals are the spawn of satan, how george w bush is fucking christ come to earth.

Puh-leese. Spare me your bullshit, rEpUbLiCaNhOtTiEs of the world.

*btw...republicanhottie is a parody made up by yours truely...so dont get fired up and think its real.

[ClintonTyree]

2. This was evidenced the other day when that chopper went down...

shot down presumably. It took search and rescue teams over a day to coordinate and execute a search and rescue mission. This was a whopping 20 miles south of Baghdad. Usually search and rescue is an immediate response. That kind of slipped beneath the media's radar, imagine that! The area is so hostile they couldn't save the crew if they wanted to.
Yeah, everything is just peachy-keen in Iraq. :eyes:

[anotherdrew]

9. over a day? The pilots are going to stop flying.,,,

that's horrible, over a day to get to the crash site just 20 miles south of the capital, this is awful news... Ominous...

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. But foreign news never gets the complete coverage home news does

in any country. And most foreign news, from any country being told in any country, is bad. You don't expect "unemployment falls in Ireland for the 13th straight month" as a headline in the USA; it might get mentioned in a longer piece about the Irish economy as a whole. Neither would you expect statistics about hospitals opened, power plants built and so on. Those are relatively local news stories - you'll see them reported for a US state, maybe, but not as national news, let alone international.

Occasionally, big items like that will be international, especially if they're photogenic - eg that huge bridge in the south of France. But most of the time, international news is problems - strikes, violence, economic problems, natural disasters. To expect the 'total reporting' of Iraq in the US media is expecting Iraq to be adopted as an extension of the US overseas.

[saigon68]

5. expecting Iraq to be adopted as an extension of the US overseas

This is the NEOCONS wet dream

[Supersedeas]

7. the would have to leave their 'room service' to discover the truth

no chance of that.