Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, and Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., both told The Eagle editorial board in separate meetings in the past week that the media isn’t reporting enough of the good news in Iraq. Tiahrt said there have been great successes, but that successes don’t make the headlines. Brownback said that the media favor conflict over good news and that, on an objective basis, things are actually going well in Iraq.
Some conservative columnists also have criticized media coverage. For example, Mary Katherine Ham of Townhall.com wrote about a dispute between a St. Paul Pioneer Press columnist and the Knight Ridder reporters stationed in Iraq.
On the other hand, as I noted in a recent column, here is how Andrew Marshall, Reuters’ bureau chief in Baghdad for two years, responded to such criticisms in the August issue of Editor & Publisher magazine:
“I regard the charge that journalists in Iraq are skewing their reporting and focusing ‘too much on bad news’ as ill-informed, and a great insult to the Iraqi people. Many of those who criticize Iraq coverage seem to be suggesting that the media should somehow play down or ignore the fact that so many Iraqi civilians are being killed. . . .
“Of course, some progress is being made in Iraq. Many people in Iraq, including U.S. soldiers, are doing their best to rebuild the country and improve security. But taken in isolation, the renovation of a power plant or the opening of a new school are not a story unless placed in the wider context, and the wider context is that reconstruction is proceeding much more slowly than had been expected.”
What do you think? Are the media too negative? Does the coverage seem fair? Are the complaints politically motivated? Or, rather than hyping bad news, are the media actually sanitizing how difficult daily life really is in Iraq?
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
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36 Comments
Yes, things are just going swimmingly in Iraq. That’s why we’re getting an Islamic Constitution. That’s why more of our soldiers are dying every day. If only those rotten liberals could see the bright side of IEDs.
Oh, Good Lord. Get back to work – the mainstream media doesn’t cover half of the terrible, terrible things happening in Iraq. And what they (you) cover is certainly not in depth.
And the government has the audacity to meet with you to tell you print nicer stories? I hoped you walked out, and told them to get back to work to get our kids out of the hellhole Bush created. Then I hope you got back to work, trying to cover this war with more depth and truthfulness that you’ve been doing.
Anyone there writing the “upside” story of almost 1000 people dying on that bridge yesterday? That attacks was incredible. But remember, the tide is turning! Victory is just around the corner! The insurgency is in its last throes!!
If Bush plays this hand the smart way, he can save face. It’s a gift for him to pack-up and leave Iraq now. Billions need to be spent in New Orleans. {The “looters” are the only ones with a job}.
If it bleeds, it leads.
Good news is never reported in the media.
Joe sez:
“If it bleeds, it leads.”
And Iraq sure is bleeding.
Are we a banana republic? The press taking stenography from the powers that be. Print the truth, please, that’s what we all have. Maybe the Congressman would like the Times-Picayune to print more good stories of the flood in NOLA, too. Geesh!
GetReal it is bleeding. But the largest single day killing in Iraq since Saddam gassing people is the stampede on a bridge!
1000 people! But I’m sure it is Bush’s fault. I keep on forgetting that before Bush, life was perfect. No wars, nobody died, no hurricanes, no natural distasters, no terrorisim, nobody was starving, New Orleans was a peaching crime-free city, oil companies gave gasoline away for free, no corruption, no dictators, not one solider lost their lives, no racisim, no depression, no oil shortage, nothing. It was Utopia. Now! The world is going down in hell basket and ammagadon has just started. It started since January 2001, when Bush took office.
Bush doesn’t worship Satan; Satan worships Bush.
Where siliness is concerned, Joe Williams is an artist.
I aim to please CF! ;D
Complaining and looking at the negative side of things is the easy road. It is especially easy if that’s what you’re used to in your life. There are those on this board who choose to whine and complain and need someone to blame so that they can feed their anger and unhappiness. Challenge yourself! Ask yourself if you complain and are unhappy about life in general.
If you truly believe in some cause then by all means fight for it! But try to avoid fighting for something just because the other side doesn’t like it.
Lastly, don’t stereotype anyone.
Joe doesn’t know, so he says:
“But the largest single day killing in Iraq since Saddam gassing people is the stampede on a bridge! 1000 people! But I’m sure it is Bush’s fault.”
First of all, the largest single day killing was THE BOMBING OF IRAQ IN 2003. It’s estimated that thousands and men, women and children died for Bush’s shock and awe game of Risk for non-existent WMDs.
Second of all, yes, it IS Bush’s fault! This was an insurgent attack. The rumors of a suicide bomber were started right when they were on the bridge, to produce this result. Also, more than 100 people were killed before they got there, poisoned by food they were given during the march.
Yes, this is BUSH’s FAULT.
I’ll say it again in case you still don’t understand what’s happening. The Iraq fiasco IS BUSH’S FAULT. It’s complete and total incompetence about starting the war, managing the war, and no exit strategy whatsoever.
Why you want to equate Bush with Saddam is beyond me. Certainly not helping your point!
Iraq reportage IS too negative, to the truth.
Reporters have done a decent job keeping us apprised of the chaos, murder and mayhem.
But they have done a rotten job of describing the political situation that cannot result in anything good. For example, did you hear that last week, some Shias with guns just walked into the mayor of Bagdad’s office and told him to pack?
You didn’t?
Also, the Bush administration has some 9 BILLION dollars in pay-offs and kick-backs that are unaccounted for. They air-lift BALES of shrink-wrapped 100 dollar bills to Iraq where private mercinaries and hirees cart it off in duffle bags.
Didn’t hear about that either, did ya?
BTW, what does Brownback or Tiahrt know about it–did they spend any quality time there? I’m guessing no . . .
NoJo, thanks for the Norman Vincit Peale pep-talk.
I suppose you’re going to tell the folks in New Orleans to look at the bright side, now they don’t have to paint their house, because they don’t have a house.
I think the first part of solving a problem is admitting that a problem exists.
But I guess if life is good for a conservative like you, that’s all that matters . . .
Republicans live in this science fiction world that’s inside their heads. If the rest of us could see it, it would be a combination of The Jetsons, Leave it to Beaver, 1984, Caligula, and the set of The 700 Club.
This science fiction world has nothing to do with reality. They keep trying to bend the world in ways that would fit this imaginary world of theirs. They don’t care if it’s right or wrong, or how many people it will hurt or kill, or if it’s against their religion. If they can bend the world a little more toward this fantasy, then everything will be alright. “Trust me! Stay the course!”
This is extremely dangerous to all of us. Those who would act on a world stage to fulfill these fantasies, and refuse to deal with what’s happening on the ground, or to fix their mistakes, or to tell the truth about what is happening should be stopped immediately.
And those who support them should feel seven tons of stupid.
Galahad, nothing in my post was directed at you, personally. Why do you take offense to just about everything someone writes that YOU perceive as right-wing or conservative and go on to blast them for it?
With 180,000 trained Iraqi troops (according to Bush) and AT MOST 27,000 insurgents (according to Rumsfield) we can put the Iraqi troops on the ground and bring our troops home.
Ben’s a thinkin:
“With 180,000 trained Iraqi troops (according to Bush)…”
ROFL. If anyone believes there are 180,000 trained Iraqi troops ready to fight, you are on giant mushrooms.
If anyone thinks that the insurgency is in its “last death throes”, as Dick Cheney has said, you are a fool to be laughed at.
What has this President done? And when will you hold him accountable? When will you start thinking for yourself? Put it together people!
(I’m not talking about Ben, I’m speaking to Ameri-freakin-ca in general).
NoJo–I don’t take offense at it, but I do blast arguments that are distractions from the real issue.
The real issue is that American kids are dying for a lie in Iraq. Having gone through it once with Vietnam, I could never have dreamed that a president of the US of A would ever get us into the same kind of quagmire AGAIN, but here we are.
Painting a smiley face on the gates of hell doesn’t make the final destination any less hot.
Not admitting the Bush is a competent liar but incompetent at everything else is a very dangerous delusion for the fighting men that are dying for policies that people like you support.
That damn Bush! He shouldn’t have believed a thing Clinton and his Intellegence agencies Passed on!
That’s just sad, Joe, a sad commentary on the bankruptcy of responsibility of the Republican party.
Even if Clinton believed what Bush believed, he didn’t flippin’ INVADE IRAQ.
Clinton has been out of office for five years, and you conservatives talk more about him than you do Bush.
But given Bush’s performance, it’s not hard to see why you’d want to change the subject . . .
Joe likes to troll, so he put down a fudgsickle just long enough to type:
“That damn Bush! He shouldn’t have believed a thing Clinton and his Intelligence agencies Passed on!”
Wait a minute – are you confusing Iraq with Al Qaeda?
You DO know 9/11 and the “War on Terrorism” has nothing to do with Iraq, right? Whew – you scared me there for a minute!
But are you saying that Bush started a War in the middle east solely based on intelligence that was over 3 years old? Wow – that’s incompetence! Who would do something that stupid? I guess you’re saying Bush would!
But what you probably meant to say was that Bush cherry picked intelligence to favor Iraq having WMDs. You really meant to talk about how he didn’t let weapons inspections finish, and I’m sure you meant to mention the outright lies about intelligence, like the yellowcake from Niger.
That damn Bush.
Some kids are gonna laugh when they see his picture in their history book. Other kids won’t laugh – they’ll know that Bush killed their mom or dad in a hot windy wasteland — for absolutely no reason.
I thought the question everyone on here was answering was wether or not the media should be printing more articles on all the good things that are starting to happen in Iraq. However, I must have read that wrong because all I see on this board are grown men complaining about Bush and shouting “bring our troops home!” Before you start going off on that speal how about asking the troops what THEY want. Speaking from personal experience I gurantee they’d tell you that it would make things worse if they left now. Of all the men I know in the service not ONE of them is ready to turn tale and run home.So while ya’ll find some more things to complain about regarding Bush I’ll go look for that message board that was trying to concentrate on the good things are Boys are doing over there. I may get burned at the stake for this, but I think they should stay there and finish what they started!To answer the original question yes please write some articles about the good things happening over there. It would be a lot more pleasant than listining to these belly achers all the time.
Won’t the press actually have to find some good news there before they can print it? I know our current administration, which employs hundreds of consultants to research techniques for inventing facts, is only concerned with their image. The only good news coming out of Iraq is in press releases written in Washington and passed off as news!
So what IS the good news, Mandy?
Damoon, I suspect the good news from Mandy’s standpoint is, she’s not in Iraq getting her shallow ass shot off.
If you guys and gals want to know about the good news of Iraq then why not get your unamerican butts ofr this page and read some the stories posted by our men and women who are over there fighting for this countries freedom and Iraqs. You people call your selves Americans but you act like a bunch of French fags. If we don’t stand up and fight for what is right, no one will. You don’t like America, leave and go live in Iraq. maybe you can help them because all you are doing here is causing a disruption in a good cause. Freedom is not free. What are you willing to pay? If America had more people like you, unwilling to fight, then we would not America. We’d be some backward 3rd world country begging for another country to come in and help us. Get a life and spend some time in your history books. We, the USA, are the good guys. Stop being pissed off that the Dems. lost the last 2 elections and fall in behind out troops and support them. If we pull out of Iraq now this whole world would be worse off. We need to stand our groud and see this thing through.
Uh Kevin???? Seen the pics out of New Orleans? Kinda looks third world don’t it?
And that is just another notch in the folly that is bs’s (my moniker for bush) Iraq.
“Good things” happening in Iraq? Sure there are a few. That cannot help but be so given that we have the balance of our national guard and infrastructure restoring folks there. This has by the way contributed to death in America in the wake of the hurricane.
In Iraq, we rebuild pipelines so that insurgents can blow them up again so that we can repair them again. (Nice revenue stream for halliburton) We attempt to force democratic unity on a group of people who have no desire for either democracy or unity. And all the while we do this, we only generate more enemies. Which is of course the point.Bs Bush does not mean for the war to end. He means for it to be continued. Each “progress” is a digress. It is self sustaining now. But I think I covered that.
America has it’s own problems now. We need to build schools HERE. We need to re-build infrastructure HERE.
Our revolution to democracy was supported by France and Spain. Once the fighting was done they left us to sort it out. That is what is needed for Iraq now. It is time for us to butt out and attend to matters at home.
As we should have done in the first place.
Freedom isn’t Free.
To the person who said this.What have you done to pay for it?I don’t have a brother anymore. He died southeast of Tikrit. My family doesn’t know why. No one in authourity in the Army or State Dept. will tell us. Niether will the Chaplins.
My brother taught me how to play chess. He taught me how to cruise for girls in the mall. He gave me his guitar when he left for Iraq, and that is all I have left of him.
What in the name of all that is holy have you done to pay from freedom?
You must enjoy listening to yourself. I don’t. Next time we have a war, why don’t you go. I may be able to keep family if you go. My family gave blood to protect freedom, what did you give?
Yeah that’s a cute remark Dammon. However, my roomates and my boyfriend are over there at least once a year getting their asses shot at. And they wouldn’t have it any other way. I completly support them and what there doing over there
It has aready been mentioned in these blogs that Arthur Chrenkoff publishes a review every two weeks of good news in Iraq. The list always seems endless, but you never see any of it in the major media.
The most recent summary is here: http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110007176
Again, Mandy, what IS the good news? I’m sorry your friends are getting shot at, but at least you all seem to believe in the cause. I hope 10 yrs from now you’ll think the sacrifice was worth it. I lost several friends plus 53,000 of their peers in Vietnam and to me it wasn’t worth it.
PS Mandy, go back and re read the postings, I didn’t make the “cute remark”. I hope your friends return safe and sound.
I have to apologize to you Damoon. Sorry that I thought it was you that made the cute remark. The good news? How about helping all those people over there..helping them to have a better life, helping them build schools, helping them with clothes, books, food…ect. Have you gone to that page that was linked to above? There are some really heart warming things that are being done to help these people. Thank you for your concern, but I’m not sorry that my roomates and boyfriend are over there once a year. I’m very proud of them and feel honored to know men like them in an age where most men my age would turn tale and run if you said “boo” to them. However, I am sorry that you lost so many friends in Vietnam, but this isn’t Vietnam. We are fighting to help these people gain freedom and I think that’s a very noble cause. Ten years from now I’ll be able to look back on this time and still feel the same. I’m proud of my military, my president, and my country.
“but I’m not sorry that my roomates and boyfriend are over there once a year.”
Mandy, that seems a little strange. How does one get sent to Iraq once a year? Have we got a new military tour of duty that I’m not aware of?
“Ten years from now I’ll be able to look back on this time and still feel the same. I’m proud of my military, my president, and my country.”
Girl, you need to listen to Damoon. She’s the voice of experience. In ten years, you’ll realize you’ve been lied to. You may not see it now, but nothing is ever really new, and history does indeed repeat itself. It’s repeating itself right now. Iraq is a replay of Vietnam. People my age and Damoon’s age have seen it all before. Wanna hear the future?
A lot more American soldiers are going to die; hopefully not your boyfriend or room mates (I still question the veracity of that…it just doesn’t sound right).
Americans are going to finally get fed up with a war that goes nowhere and accomplishes nothing. We’re fighting and dying to install an Islamic Theocracy, for God’s sake! You want Americans to die to create Iran Lite? Are you really ok with that? Wasn’t the idea to install Democracy (after the idea was to find WMD, and after the next idea was to find porgrams to produce WMD, and after the next idea was to find the intent to have programs to produce WMD)?
Bush will find some excuse to declare victory and start bringing home the troops. What do you want to bet the timing coincides with an election?
When we leave, Iraq will crumble into civil war or worse.
Mandy, you can hate me for saying this, but remember who told you so. Like I said, Nothing is ever really new.
Snidley,My roomates go over there once a year because they are part of the air force. Sorry you weren’t more aware of how our military works. Maybe if you were you’d have a better opinion of our military, president, and this war. Go educate yourself on what is really happening and don’t just relly on what you hear/read from the media.
Mandy, I’m pretty well “aware” of how the military works, but I was under the impression that a tour of duty in Iraq was for 6 months or a year.As far as being “educated” about what’s really happening, I guess we’ll just have to agree to dissagree on that point. All of my information doesn’t come from the media. I have friends that are Iraqi (in Iraq), and they tell a different story. It’s not the “Sunshine and Lollipops” world you think it is.