McClatchy Blog Offers Rough View of Baghdad

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003536714

Since the war in Iraq began, nearly every angle on blogging from the war-torn country has been pursued, from G.I.'s to longtime war correspondents posting their dispatches online. But at McClatchy's Baghdad bureau, a different approach launched recently, with the bureau's local Iraqi staffers filing their views.

Seven of the local bureau employees, who do everything from reporting to serving as translators and drivers, have been posting items about the devastation the war has caused to their lives and country. Speaking as residents of the embattled nation, their take is clearly more attuned to the impact of the war than those of any visiting soldier or journalist.

John Walcott, McClatchy's Washington bureau chief, said the blog is aimed at giving readers a different account of the war from locals whose views offer the best overall assessment. "I think hearing from Iraqis directly about their lives is something you don't get from a lot of places," he said about the blog, which launched Jan. 4. "I had wanted to do it for about a year. We wanted to do it in a way that didn't endanger them, not fully identify them."

One worker, identified as Zaineb, wrote in a posting last Friday,"It's shocking when some new and bad incidents would creep its way to your life and you don't feel it, though you are living it minute by minute, a shocking fact that the more days you live the more Baghdad gets smaller for you, the more you get chained. I wonder if I can visit my friend who lives next door in the few coming months!!"

Several days earlier, a posting by someone identified only as Mohammad, declared, "I have been waiting since 2003 when my country was occupied until this year for things to get better in my country but its taking forever and no one can predict when will it end that's why I made my decision to leave but I am facing hard time convincing my wife to leave because she doesn't like the idea for many reasons but I see the reasons everyday."