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Self-defense

16 comments on Self-defense

Self-defense

: Chris Albritton, the journalist/blogger who just returned to Iraq, unleashes a long diatribe about how difficult it is to report in Iraq: the traffic, the security, the rules, the mistrust. He defends his journalist colleagues against accusations that they either aren’t sticking it to the man or aren’t reporting good news (“There isn’t much good news to report”).

OK, he’s there and we’re not. Better reporter than I, Gunga Din. But I think the diatribe misses two points:

First, because of all the limits he lists, don’t we need to acknowledge that we are not getting good reporting from Iraq? I don’t care about the reasons and excuses of which there are plenty. Let’s just take a cold, hard look at the quality of the reporting and see whether we’re getting the whole story.

Second, Chris, if I may suggest: Go talk to some of your fellow bloggers, Iraqi bloggers. You, of all journalists, should understand the benefit of their perspective — and reporting. Partner with them; show them some tricks of the reporting trade; quote them; introduce their story to mainstream Western media because no one else is. It’s the perfect bloggers’ scoop.

See my earlier post suggesting this to other reporters here and here. See Jay Rosen on this topic here and here. See also Thomas P.M. Barnett’s description, below, of Iraqi blogs as “serious ground truth.”

16 responses to “Self-defense”

  1. Jorg Avatar
    Jorg

    Why on earth would he rely heavily on the English-language Iraqi bloggers? They’re just about the most unrepresentative bunch one could imagine. All have lived part or most of their lives overseas. All are secular. And they cater almost exclusively to a non-Iraqi audience.
    Only a fool would rely on them to get a glimpse of “real” Iraqi people. He’d be better off hanging out with his driver’s extended family!

  2. Dave Schuler Avatar
    Dave Schuler

    Frankly, I have little sympathy for the problems Mr. Albritton describes. First, the war correspondent’s job has always been dangerous. Second, there’s been something of a tradition of journalists reporting on whatever could be determined from the bar in the Hilton. It’s not a new issue. Third, journalism is a human activity and is, therefore, necessarily biased. If Western journalists refuse to use the sources that are available to them in search of some kind of phony balance, at best they’re being dopes. Al Jazeera’s reporters certainly won’t be handicapped by an illusory search for balance. Fourth, reporters were shielding and colluding with Saddam Hussein for at least a decade. Perhaps if they had done their job honestly then things would be different now.

  3. Yehudit Avatar
    Yehudit

    “Why on earth would he rely heavily on the English-language Iraqi bloggers? They’re just about the most unrepresentative bunch one could imagine. All have lived part or most of their lives overseas. All are secular. And they cater almost exclusively to a non-Iraqi audience.”
    That’s a pretty sweeping statement. It’s true of Salam Pax, but ALL English-language Iraqi bloggers, or even most of them? I’d like to see that charge substantiated.
    In any case, they can certainly introduce Allbritton to their friends and colleagues and translate for them. It’s clear from their stories that they are living solidly Iraqi lives amongst native Iraqis.

  4. wellbasically Avatar
    wellbasically

    There are some bloggers who get news coverage. The Jarrars are on the BBC.
    They don’t count because they were against the war though, and the BBC is so anti-semitic.
    Maybe Fox should go find Iraq the Model and put them on TV. At least that would stop them comment spamming.

  5. Ebb Tide Avatar
    Ebb Tide

    “Naked in Baghdad” is Anne Garrels diary/journal (mixed in with emails from her husband) of her experience in Baghdad reporting for NPR…. I recommend it highly… get the audio cd’s or tapes… anyway, someone like her, who had enough war correspondent experience to know how to get around the mechanisms of roadblocks (not literal roadblocks, methaphoric ones) to getting the story behind the story, told a great eyewitness view to war, and history in the making.
    There are people reporting war coverage, and blogging, Steve Harrigan (sp?) from Fox News comes to mind…. I hate to tell you, though, most people are not that interested in it… they’d rather watch American Idol.

  6. Tom Popyk Avatar
    Tom Popyk

    Having just returned from freelancing in Iraq (www.televisionreporter.com), I share Chris’ concerns.
    Sitting at a computer, emailing and trackbacking to other bloggers, plugging into the feedback loop, is not reportage.
    Frankly, why would I donate to Chris’ project if I was only going to get his opinion of Salam or Riverbend? Why not just read the originals?
    There’s nothing fresh.
    Congrats to Chris for not sitting at the bar. He’s going out and trying to get the goods.
    Dropping into Baghdad today, as opposed to a year ago, is a shock. It is more dangerous. Expected developments (like simple reconstruction) have not happened.
    Give the guy some slack until he gets some sea legs.
    And anyone thinking he isn’t doing his job – well go over there and try to do it yourself. Criticism isn’t just cheap, it is ignorant.

  7. Dave Schuler Avatar
    Dave Schuler

    Congrats to Chris for not sitting at the bar. He’s going out and trying to get the goods.

    Agreed. And if it were easy everybody would be doing it.

  8. Franky Avatar
    Franky

    Yeah it’s pretty ballsy for armchair commentators to sit around and bitch about coverage in Iraq, and then in the ultimate disconnection from reality, to suggest that these reporters are only reporting bad news because they want to oust bush this November. I make a prediction (probably wildly off, but possible): such opinionated blogs have jumped the shark in international affairs. I get the feeling that the resolutely pro-war faction are swirling in to psychosis where they can bad-mouth reporters in Iraq for their coverage when half of these insta-critics have never left their own country, where all reporters (except of course Fox) are rabid anti-Bushies who are determined not to report anything good (I’m seeing with increasing frequency that many pro-war voices are saying they’ve given up on all the traditional media and now rely soley upon blogs – I’m not really sure if the media’s job was ever to only present things you want to hear, but probably to tell you things you don’t want to hear – either way, the psychosis of these few will increase, but I’m sure as a nation we can handle a few more loonies walking the streets in their underwear screaming that the NYT is out to get them).

  9. Jorg Avatar
    Jorg

    Ignorant insta-critics, indeed. Heh

  10. Franky Avatar
    Franky

    Regarding the Iraqi bloggers, I’ve always had my suspicions about how much to trust what they say, and how reflective they were of general sentiment. By speaking English, that must have put them closer to the top than the bottom of the heap, and this is confirmed by their regular access to internet (I’m not setting out to diminsh their impact, I’m sure some are doing excellent work, but I just have my doubts as to how much they represent).
    But I did note how the war-bloggers turned on Salem Pax when he stopped writing what they wanted to hear (anyone else see Lileks’ pissy fit? Instapundit can’t refer to Salem without sounding like a jilted lover). As a note, I have no dog in this fight, as I’ve never read either his column or his blog.

  11. ed Avatar
    ed

    No one can tell me that IraqTheModel are commentspammers- that is unbelievaby insulting and typical of the idiocy of the left over Iraq. No-one who engaged brain or emotion over the writings of Mohammed or Omar at ITM could dismiss them that way. These guys, whatever they are, are talented and thoughtful, and surfers ought to have a little humility in the light of that since those are not qualities thick on the ground on the WWW. If incapable of engaging brain or feeling about the struggles of Iraqis through the recent decades, one should shut up.

  12. Reid Avatar
    Reid

    The criticisms of Jeff’s criticism are unfounded. What he said is categorically true. By the reporter’s own admission, he is not able to give a clear objective picture of what is going on. What, then, is he giving us?

  13. Ebb Tide Avatar
    Ebb Tide

    The Fadhil brothers are an elite minority, there are many more iraqis who believe Americans have x-ray vision and that to make an rpg work against the magnetic defenses, you wrap it in a wet sock.

  14. wellbasically Avatar
    wellbasically

    I don’t know if they are spamming, they’re minions are. People who want pro-US news out of Iraq are trying to push Iraq the model on several sites I frequent with totally non-sequitir comments encouraging me to visit their url.
    So if they’re not doing it then somebody is profaning their holy blogging by doing it.
    Personally I enjoy reading their site, but I have the advantage of distance from both left and right in the USA to know Iraqi Leftists when I see them. You wouldn’t chart the progress of an invasion of the USA by reading Steve Gilliard.

  15. Yehudit Avatar
    Yehudit

    “By speaking English, that must have put them closer to the top than the bottom of the heap, and this is confirmed by their regular access to internet”
    Lots of internet cafes have opened in Iraq since the end of the war, so anyone in a large city who isn’t dirt poor can log on. That would make the Iraqi bloggers middle-class professionals, pretty much the population which is on the net here. Lots more people in other countries speak English than speak other languages here – it’s hardly an elite.
    Salam Pax was certainly of the elite when he had access during the war, because until Saddam fell, only select Baathists and their families could get internet access. But that isn’t true anymore.

  16. Jason Newburn Avatar
    Jason Newburn

    There’s at least one journalist/blogger in Iraq doing good work. Check out Dahr Jamail — he’s an Alaskan who’s been there for 2 months, working for a noncommercial site called The NewStandard and also blogging like crazy. He doesn’t seem to feel too cooped up in a hotel room. Maybe Albritton and the others are making too much money sitting still… Meanwhile, Jamail has been traveling everywhere, getting all kinds of stories, including a bunch that deal with the progress of the “rebuilding efforts” under way in Iraq.