Posted on 01/26/2007 1:50:01 PM PST by mek1959
Ramadi, Iraq Would you trust a Hurricane Katrina report datelined “direct from Detroit”? Or coverage of the World Trade Center attack from Chicago? Why then should we believe a Time Magazine investigation of the Haditha killings that was reported not from Haditha but from Baghdad? Or a Los Angeles Times article on a purported Fallujah-like attack on Ramadi reported by four journalists in Baghdad and one in Washington? Yet we do, essentially because we have no choice. A war in a country the size of California is essentially covered from a single city. Plug the name of Iraqi cities other than Baghdad into Google News and you’ll find that time and again the reporters are in Iraq’s capital, nowhere near the scene. Capt. David Gramling, public affairs officer for the unit I’m currently embedded with, puts it nicely: “I think it would be pretty hard to report on Baghdad from out here.” Welcome to the not-so-brave new world of Iraq war correspondence.
Vietnam was the first war to give us reporting in virtually real time. Iraq is the first to give us virtual reporting. That doesn’t necessarily make it biased against the war; it does make it biased against the truth.
During my three embeds in Iraq’s vicious Anbar Province, I’ve been mortared and sniped at, and have dodged machine-gun fire — all of which has given me a serious contempt for the rear-echelon reporters. When I appeared on the Al Franken Show in May, after my second embed, it was with former CNN Baghdad bureau chief Jane Arraf — who complained about the dangers of being shot down by a missile while landing in Baghdad, and the dangers of the airport road to the International Zone (IZ) . . . and how awful the Baghdad hotels were.
Interesting read.
Not really, many stories on Vietnam were filed from the Caravelle Hotel , in Saigon, now called Ho Chi Minh City. The reports were about of the same veracity and accuracy.
Or about how the lettuce at the Black Jack DFAC had some wilt to it, or how the PX at Camp Liberty only had frozen steaks, not fresh...
Isn't this an amazing read? To actually read the breathless comments from some of our "heroic" media and then have them out into perspective by this reporter was fascinating. Up until I read his account about the landing into Baghdad, I had bought into the "corkscrew" landing that's been reported.
I don't know what he's talking about regarding the landings....I'd been into BIAP many times and ALWAYS corkscrewed in. It is amazing how nimble 737s can be, how erratic the Russian pilots flying the Antonov's can be and he's full of crap regarding C-130's which are surpisingly agile.
My first landing in country was in NYANG C-130 and we were nearly knife edged coming into Anaconda. I've seen this from the ground as well, with some of them having to fire chaff to distract the missiles.
The only landings that I experienced that were close to normal were at Tikrit, Mosel, Al Asad, and Taqqadum. BIAP was always a corkscrew regardless if it was civilan or military aircraft.
However I doubt that a retired cop was in a panic...
Other than that, I'd agree with his scorn for the IZ and GZ commandos. And yes, the guys at Liberty seems to dress and equip themselves in the style they imagined that those of us in the outlaying areas did. Kind of a running joke, really.
These reporters remind me of that journalist character in Doonesbury who wears the safari jacket. Total frauds. Wasn't it Mike Wallace who threw a tantrum at his Baghdad hotel during Desert Storm because the hot tub was unacceptable?
Hmmm... on that website for the hotel it has rates for "triple beds" I've never heard of those.
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