Posted on 10/22/2007 5:17:47 AM PDT by shrinkermd
All describe the bizarro-world contrast between what most Americans seem to think is happening in Iraq versus what is really happening in Iraq. Knowing this disconnect exists and experiencing it directly are two separate matters. It’s like the difference between holding the remote control during the telecast of a volcanic eruption on some distant island (and then flipping the channel), versus running for survival from a wretch of molten lava that just engulfed your car.
I was at home in the United States just one day before the magnitude hit me like vertigo: America seems to be under a glass dome which allows few hard facts from the field to filter in unless they are attached to a string of false assumptions. Considering that my trip home coincided with General Petraeus’ testimony before the US Congress, when media interest in the war was (I’m told) unusually concentrated, it’s a wonder my eardrums didn’t burst on the trip back to Iraq. In places like Singapore, Indonesia, and Britain people hardly seemed to notice that success is being achieved in Iraq, while in the United States Britney was competing for airtime with O.J. in one of the saddest sideshows on Earth.
No thinking person would look at last year’s weather reports to judge whether it will rain today, yet we do something similar with Iraq news. The situation in Iraq has drastically changed, but the inertia of bad news leaves many convinced that the mission has failed beyond recovery, that all Iraqis are engaged in sectarian violence, or are waiting for us to leave so they can crush their neighbors. This view allows our soldiers two possible roles: either “victim caught in the crossfire” or “referee between warring parties.” Neither, rightly, is tolerable to the American or British public.
Today I am in Iraq, back in a war of such strategic consequence that it will affect generations yet unborn—whether or not they want it to. Hiding under the covers will not work, because whether it is good news or bad, whether it is true or untrue, once information is widely circulated, it has such formidable inertia that public opinion seems impervious to the corrective balm of simple and clear facts.
Don't know if you have read this article yet or are familiar with Michael Yon's work. He is a fantastic writer and photographer who is on the ground in Iraq telling the real story, both good and bad. Near the end of this article, he is asking for anyone who can donate money or time to help get the real news out. He has issued a challenge/offer to the National Newspaper Association (NNA). He is offering his articles and photographs at no cost to them to reprint. He wants to change the perception of how things are going in Iraq. Let's stop merely complaining and start letting our local newspapers know about Michael's generous offer/challenge to NNA affiliated newspapers.
I am going to write my local newspaper, and I am going to make yet another donation to this incredible writer so he can really get the word out, and I implore all my wonderfully patriotic freeper friends to do whatever they can if they feel the same way I do about Michael Yon.
If you don't want to be pinged by me in the future, just let me know. But I put everyone I thought might be interested based on posts you might have made on other articles I have posted on FR.
Using the lessons learned from “Bless the Beasts,” it probably won’t be enough just to make the news I am reporting available to NNA-member publications at no cost. There may need to be a little irritating sand in order to get a pearl out of this oyster.
This is where my readers come in, at least those among them who share the concern that the distorted picture most Americans have of the situation in Iraq has strategic (and disastrous) implications for this war, our national security, and the stability of one of the most volatile regions on the planet.
Those readers can first check to see if their local paper is a member of the NNA . Because only NNA members will be able to
” . . . print excerpts of Michael Yon’s dispatches, including up to two of his photographs from each dispatch. Online excerpts may use up to 8 paragraphs, use 1-3 photos, and then link back to the full dispatch on his site saying ‘To continue reading, click here.’”
If their local paper is a member of NNA, readers can contact the editor, urging their participation. [If Bob Owens’ experience is a reliable indicator, this might take several, uh, prompts.] By encouraging their local daily or weekly newspapers to reprint these dispatches in their print editions, more people without internet access can begin to see a more accurate reflection of the progress I have observed and chronicled in dispatches like “Achievements of the Heart,” “7 Rules: 1 Oath,” “The Hands of God,” and “Three Marks on the Horizon.”
There is a cost to this. By making these stories available to NNA members at no cost, I have to forego any license fees they might otherwise generate. Although the newspapers who participate in this venture won’t have any additional costs, that also won’t reduce the expenses I incur to continue producing work that many commenters say needs to reach a wider audience. But it certainly gives those same commenters an easy way to put some walk behind all their talk.
To find out more about the NNA syndication project, go here. For more information about how to encourage your local NNA member newspaper to participate, contact our project administrator here. It’s easy to complain about the state of mainstream media coverage of the War in Iraq. Now, it’s also easy to do something concrete to improve it. The hardest part is the work our soldiers and the Iraqi people are doing every day; even the work I do in getting the stories about their efforts out to my readers pales in comparison.
Michael Yon is a national treasure.
thanks, bfl
Agreed. Now, let’s write our local newspapers so that our local communities can see why we feel this way.
bttt
America has three identifiable enemies.
1. Islamofascist terrorists
2. Liberal Democrat politicians
3. The Mainstream Media
.
4. The Gullible who support #2, in the next election.
“The Gullible who support #2, in the next election.”
But...
But...
Hillary is going to give me FREE SH*T!!
FREE Healthcare!
FREE Baby Bonds!
Mandated Paid “Family” leave!
A FREE savings whatever!
AND IT’S NOT GOING TO COST ME A DIME! (Right???)
“the MSM seems to be reporting less and less on events in Iraq.”
It’s not you...
Ever since the Candidates decreed no pullout before 2013, the MSM suddenly clammed up, and threw the Anti-war libs down the Memory Hole..
It’s been absolutely ORWELLIAN...
Been a long, rocky road and there are still potholes ahead, but yes, it is, and the sad part about it not being widely reported is that so many in the media now have a vested interest in suppressing it. Were they simply reporting the news that wouldn't be the case, but they have a narrative to protect now.
I think we gained another FReeper the other day. The son of a friend just got back from his second tour and about two beers into the conversation this volcano of resentment erupted. He couldn't make his liberal Dad believe that what he saw was true and what the MSM - specifically NPR and CNN - were telling him was false. His Dad wanted to believe the crap. I think a lot of people do. Why is a fascinating question. I've chewed it over a lot and still haven't come up with a satisfactory answer.
As ABC News' Charlie Gibson reported in the past few weeks, "And the news from Iraq today is....there is no news."
Nothing blew up, therefore there was no news that day. Lazy and pathetic reporting from those who are supposedly at the top of their proffession.
Ping!
Opportunity will be the price we pay.
I wonder if that is a "coincidence"?
Thank you for the ping
Indeed, yet that vital information on Brittney's latest struggle is being given scant coverage by the media because of Ellen's dog problems. ;~))
Don't know if you have read this article yet or are familiar with Michael Yon's work. He is a fantastic writer and photographer who is on the ground in Iraq telling the real story, both good and bad. Near the end of this article, he is asking for anyone who can donate money or time to help get the real news out. He has issued a challenge/offer to the National Newspaper Association (NNA). He is offering his articles and photographs at no cost to them to reprint. He wants to change the perception of how things are going in Iraq. Let's stop merely complaining and start letting our local newspapers know about Michael's generous offer/challenge to NNA affiliated newspapers.Thanks T4B.
In places like Singapore, Indonesia, and Britain people hardly seemed to notice that success is being achieved in Iraq, while in the United States Britney was competing for airtime with O.J. in one of the saddest sideshows on Earth.I haven't heard any "this month's death toll in Iraq is higher" type reports, which by itself probably means things have improved.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.