Richard WarnickJournalists in Iraq: A survey of reporters on the front lines
The Project for Excellence in Journalism has released a survey entitled Journalists in Iraq: A survey of reporters on the front lines. This is important because the stories we read and see on TV are edited and controlled. We seldom get the opinion of the reporter, unless it’s someone like CNN’s Michael Ware– and even he feels the need to “balance” what he knows with the claims of official spokespeople and Bush administration propagandists. Rarely are we informed of the pervasive climate of fear and violence that makes it hard for journalists to do their jobs.
Though there are differences of opinion on other matters, reporters agree that Iraq is incredibly dangerous.
A majority of journalists surveyed say most of the country is too dangerous to visit. Nine out of ten say that about at least half of Baghdad itself. Wherever they go, traveling with armed guards and chase vehicles is the norm for more than seven out of ten surveyed.
Of the survey respondents, 57% said that a member of their staff was murdered or kidnapped in the last year, 62% experience frequent threats of violence and 87% said their staff cannot identify themselves as working for a news organization. And most journalists, eight out of ten, feel that, over time, conditions for telling the story of Iraq have gotten worse, not better.
“It is dangerous and frustrating,†a broadcast editor wrote. “You want to go out and cover stories, but you cannot because of the threat of kidnapping or worse. It’s hard to hear commentators back home say, ‘The media isn’t covering the full story.’ Well, there’s a reason for that, and it’s not bias. And when journalists cannot cover a playground being rebuilt because it’s too dangerous to travel around the city, then that playground is not the primary story.â€
PEJ also asked journalists about the often-repeated right-wing claim that the media are giving us a pessimistic picture of Iraq:
Most (70%) of those surveyed believe their coverage overall has given an accurate picture of what is happening there. About one-in-six (15%) believe the coverage makes the situation look better than it is. Hardly any (3%) believe it focuses too much on the negative.
Journalists are also frustrated because editors are not very interested in stories about Iraqi politics or the plight of ordinary Iraqis.
“There’s been too much coverage of the American military ‘surge’ and too much emphasis on framing stories in terms of the surge,†one newspaper correspondent wrote.
Editor & Publisher has a good summary of the PEJ survey.
UPDATE: Let’s remember that the threat to reporters in Iraq is not exclusively from the “bad guys.” Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein has been imprisoned without charges by the US military for 19 months.
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Meanwhile, right-wing freelancer Michael J. Totten writes that what’s left of Fallujah is safer than New York City. I suppose it could be, as long as you are not an Iraqi and you are surrounded at all times by heavily armed Marines. Thanks to Matthias for posting a link to Totten’s article. Interestingly enough, Totten fails to mention that the US government is now supporting 72,000 “former” insurgents who are gearing up for a Sunni-Shiite civil war. CNN’s Michael Ware reports that 45,000 of them are on the payroll (they get $300/month for not trying to kill Americans).
