Pretty War

Real Journalism

I'll repeat Attaturk's sentiment via Atrios, and that is I cannot encourage you enough to read this editorial in the Louisville Courier-Journal by American Journalist, Molly Bingham. There needs to be more of this to wake America up. Here is a sample, but really read the whole thing and pass it on.

We spent 10 months in Iraq, working on a story, understanding who the people are who are fighting, why they fight, what their fundamental beliefs are, when they started, what kinds of backgrounds they come from, what education, jobs they have. Were they former military, are they Iraqi or foreign? Are they part of al-Qaida? What we came up with is a story in itself, and one that Vanity Fair ran in July 2004 with my text and pictures. [My colleague Steve Connors] shot a documentary film that is still waiting to find a home. But the basic point for this discussion is that we both thought it was really journalistically important to understand who it was who was resisting the presence of the foreign troops. If you didn't understand that, how could you report what was clearly becoming an "ongoing conflict?" And if you were reading the news in America, or Europe, how could you understand the full context of what was unfolding if what motivates the "other side" of the conflict is not understood, or even discussed?

However, as Richard Cranium writes on The All Spin Zone:

Unfortunately, I think Ms. Bingham is missing a key point - the vast majority of Americans don't want to understand. They don't want to know that a dozen Americans have been killed in Iraq in the past 72 hours, and hundreds of Iraqis have died in the past week - they want to be soothed with the assurances that the U.S. military killed over 100 insurgents in a major offensive against the resistance.

...Between reporters like Molly Bingham and Dahr Jamail, the truth is out there. But it requires some actual legwork on a truthseeker's part to find it...

So, am I right to assume that Dateline viewers are infinitely more interested runaway brides and Michael Jackson? Nevermind. I already know the answer to that question.

Indeed...

Posted by Tom at May 11, 2005 09:38 AM