Journalists Discuss – And Defend – Their Coverage Of The War

On Monday, a forum called "Iraq: Reports from the Frontlines" was held at UC Berkeley. "The discussion centered on two deeply polarizing questions," writes Bonnie Azab Powell in an excellent write-up (hat tip Romo). "Given the extreme danger of the situation in Iraq, are journalists in Iraq even able to cover the real story? And are they getting the story 'right'?"

This is ground we've covered before, but it continues, I think, to be extremely important. So let's get into it. The forum included a partial screening of "The War Tapes," which is a documentary filmed entirely by soldiers that will be released in theatres in July. The film is "the single best document you could see," says New York Times' Baghdad bureau chief John Burns. "It captures, in ways we as embedded reporters could not, the misery and futility of this war." It also captures the horror: At one point, writes Powell, "The camera pans slowly over the blackened shell of the vehicle and the charred upper torso of a man, head burned beyond recognition, lying halfway outside the open car door in a pool of blood. In numb tones, the soldier holding the camera tells us what that blood and flesh smells like and describes how crisped skin fragments are crunching under his feet."

When Washington Post writer Jackie Spinner told the audience that "I think we're getting 90 percent of the story" in Iraq, she was met with guffaws. "Excuse me, have you been there?," she replied. She said that Iraqi stringers help the Post's reporters get the stories that they otherwise could not.

Ralph Peters was not at the forum, but Spinner's point made me think of his latest dispatch from Baghdad. I really have no idea how true this is – Peters has a much rosier view of the situation in Iraq, to put it diplomatically, than most of the people covering it – but it is worth considering. Here's a portion:

The dangerous nature of journalism in Iraq has created a new phenomenon, the all-powerful local stringer. Unwilling to stray too far from secure facilities and their bodyguards, reporters rely heavily on Iraqi assistance in gathering news. And Iraqi stringers, some of whom have their own political agendas, long ago figured out that Americans prefer bad news to good news. The Iraqi leg-men earn blood money for unbalanced, often-hysterical claims, while the Journalism 101 rule of seeking confirmation from a second source has been discarded in the pathetic race for headlines.

Spinner, meanwhile, said something that, to me, rang particularly true. I'm not a mainstream media apologist by any means – my previous job at Columbia Journalism Review entailed ripping journalists daily – but I do think there's something to this comment: "The Iraq war has so polarized this country. That's why you hear hisses and boos and claps, depending on what you're saying — people want to hear journalists reaffirm their previously held beliefs about the war," she said. "And I don't do that. I simply speak what I see. And I'm sorry if that's offensive to people, but I'm a journalist."

OK, OK, I know the "I'm a journalist" bit was somewhat self-righteous, but I do think that there's something to the idea that people often want the press to reaffirm their points of view instead of telling them the truth. That's why you can't read too much into the fact that 31% of Americans think the press is making things in Iraq sound worse than they really are, according to the latest CBS News poll (pdf). After all, 24% think the media is making things sound better than they really are.

That doesn't mean people are getting the whole story from the press, however. Burns said that Americans have reason to be proud of their military, which is building schools, helping Iraqi victims of attacks, and repairing sewage lines. "Is that adequately reflected in what we write? I'm afraid to say it isn't," he said, adding: "If 52 people get killed in a succession of bombings as they were yesterday in Sadr City in Baghdad, that's a major story. You can't ignore it. We have to dedicate resources to it. Now, whilst that was going on I have no doubt that there were thousands of American troops doing things of direct and immediate benefit to the Iraqi people."