www.televisionreporter.com: covering the Long War

Bye-bye Back-to-Iraq

You may have heard of Chris Albritton. He's the former AP reporter who set up Back-to-Iraq some years ago, and convinced readers to send him cash to go to the sandbox, and report.

Really the first blogger to get that kind of business model up and running

He did a pretty good job of it, IMHO (full disclosure -- he is a friend), and in the process became a Time Magazine regular.

He's based in Beirut these day, covered the recent conflict. And in the course of it all was firmly placed in the cross-hairs of the pajamahadeen bloggers who think they know what war is all about, because they read the internets.

Chris has had enough.

His last post pretty much sums up much the state of the blogosphere these days:

Subtlety doesn’t seem to have much place in the blogosphere anymore, where you get the most attention and the most hits by putting out whatever half-assed opinion one can muster. You only have to shout loudly enough and play to whatever audience you want to get the attention. Blogging these days seems to resemble bad vaudeville rather than thoughtful commentary.

Well worth the read.

Peter Jennings 1938-2005

In journalism school, there's a stock piece of advice professors pass on to the bright-eyed, hungry, would-be reporters: pick a pro you admire, and emulate them.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who thought Peter Jennings was that consummate journalist.

I only had the chance to meet him a couple of times: first after public lecture in Toronto, the second in the field here in Baghdad.

At the public lecture, he faced a broadside of criticism from some members of the audience and fellow journalists, for the supposed dumbing down of TV news, of the bias of mainstream media and any variety of journalistic sins. Jennings didn't apologize, challenged the audience on some assumptions, but still allowed that news, and the people who produce it, are fallible.

We try to be perfect, but we won't be, so all we can do is try harder, day in, day out.

His advice after the debate: go out and report. Get out in the world. Ask questions and learn.

Maybe that's why I wasn't surprised when he showed up at a bomb scene here. Some high-profile network faces fly in and out of the country, only leaving the hotel to tape a couple of standups, leaving the reportage to their producers.

Jennings, I was told, was one to witness the story, then report.

There are many tributes, pointing out exactly how much he witnessed, and reported, over his career.

But he also faced criticism over the years. Too cold, too Canadian, some argued. But even those points were challenged on 9/11, and when he took out American citizenship.

"There are a lot of people who think our job is to reassure the public every night that their home, their community and their nation is safe," he told author Jeff Alan. "I don't subscribe to that at all. I subscribe to leaving people with essentially — sorry it's a cliche — a rough draft of history. Some days it's reassuring, some days it's absolutely destructive." (via wires)

Journalism isn't the final word. Its a process, a journey.

Jennings practiced it with with an unwavering sense of balance, fairness, accuracy; with curiosity and honesty, and good dashes of humor and humility. And there was always room for doubt. And surprise.

That's more than a good example.

That's a good life.

Another Baghdad morning

Sounds of gunfire and explosions are not unusual in the capitol: unless there are fatalities, particularly security force casualties, the vast majority go unreported.

The attacks are often spread out, almost randomly across the city. Car bombs, like the one pictured here, explode in the distance. But the bang-bang often hits this neighbourhood.

This is what the streets sound like, after a mortar round landed about a half-block away, a couple of days ago.

After five minutes, things are back to normal. Almost everybody, journalists included, are so used to it, that we only interrupt our work to rubberneck, like slowing down on the highway to check out a stall on the side of the road.

If you can't do anything about it, why be sacred? Just life as usual here. Inshallah.

Steven Vincent

The American embassy here in Baghdad has confirmed the death of investigative freelance journalist Steven Vincent in Basrah.

The New York resident and his translator, Nour Weidi, were abducted by five men in a police car, at gunpoint, Tuesday. His body was discovered riddled with bullet, the translator suffered serious wounds.

Vincent recently published a book on post-war Iraq, In The Red Zone, and was investigating life, and crime, in Basrah. (I noted an earlier CSM article here). He had just filed a critical opinion piece in the New York Times about reconstruction and corruption in the Shia Governate.

There's much speculation that the piece led to a retaliatory killing -- he points out militant Shia infiltration in the police force. But, just as likely, it could be simple crime; journalists are known as walking ATM machines. He was abducted leaving a currency exchange shop.

As a freelancer, Vincent travelled without security.

A read through his excellent blog reveals the extent of this loss:

Layla and I have heard numerous stories about how, on big multi-million dollar projects, Iraqi translators and engineers--which the Americans, British and non-Iraqi NGOs are forced to use because of language difficulties--often accept bribes from companies to steer contract their way. Since most Westerners don't know Arabic, and must rely on the translators and engineers as their eyes and ears, the funding sources are rarely the wiser. "In my case," said the Captain, "there's just me, my database and Iraqi companies. No chance for corruption there."

I'd wanted to introduce Layla to the Gary Cooper side of America, and I felt I'd succeeded. Instead of the evasive, over-subtle, windy Iraqi, fond of theory and abstraction, here was a to-the-point Yank, rolling up his sleeves with a can-do spirit of fair play and doing good. "I want to have a positive effect on this country's future," the Captain averred. "For example, whenever I learn of a contracting firm run by women, I put it at the top of my list for businesses I want to consider for future projects." I felt proud of my countryman; you couldn't ask for a more sincere guy.

Layla, however, flashed a tight, cynical smile. "How do you know," she began, "that the religious parties haven't put a woman's name on a company letterhead to win a bid? Maybe you are just funneling money to extremists posing as contractors." Pause. The Captain looked confused. "Religious parties? Extremists?"

Oh boy. Maa salaama Gary Cooper, as Layla and I gave our man a quick tutorial about the militant Shiites who have transformed once free-wheeling Basra into something resembling Savonarola's Florence. The Captain seemed taken aback, having, as most Westerners--especially the troops stationed here--little idea of what goes on in the city. "I'll have to take this into consideration..." scratching his head, "I certainly hope none of these contracts are going to the wrong people." Not for the first time, I felt I was living in a Graham Greene novel, this about about a U.S. soldier--call it The Naive American--who finds what works so well in Power Point presentations has unpredictable results when applied to realities of Iraq. Or is that the story of our whole attempt to liberate this nation?

I didn't know him, but his penetrating insight, journalistic passion, appreciation for the absurd, and humor obviously shine through.

UPDATE: more of Vincent's work can be found at National Review Online.

For those keeping track: The Committee to Protect Journalists reports at least 45 journalists and 20 media support workers have been killed while covering the war in Iraq since March 2003.

Fog of War

Phillip Robertson has been doing some terrific reporting from here in Iraq.

In the latest file for Salon (reg. req'd) he finds the American sniper that shot Knight Ridder local reporter Yasser Salihee earlier this month".

It is amazing reportage, great writing, sympathetic and objective.

For anyone who wants to choose sides, throw blame, debate right and wrong, criticize coverage -- this is not the war reportage you'll like.

But it is one of the best descriptions of the reality on the ground here, for Iraqis and American soldiers:

"... he brought up a photograph of a white Daewoo Espero sedan on a Baghdad street. The sedan had a single bullet hole in the driver's side of the windshield. Behind the wheel there was a lifeless man, slumped in the seat with a shattered skull and a torrent of blood staining his shirt. The image carried a sudden shock of recognition and despair. The dead man behind the wheel of the car was my friend and colleague, Yasser Salihee.

The sniper lowered his voice when he talked about the pictures of the car and the man inside it. His self-assured manner disappeared and he became nervous. "Here is one of ours. I really hope he was a bad guy. Do you know anything about him?" Then he said, "See, I don't know if I should be talking about this."

"Did you fire the shot that killed him?" I asked."

Maybe-see TV

CNN presents has a comprehensive look at developments in Iraq over the past year. It follows last week's excellent program on European lessons of terrorism.

Give most journalists an hour, and they can give you a pretty good snapshot of what's happening here.

Still snapshots are static. The NYT's Ed Wong paints a different picture of Falluja's future:

Transformed into a police state after last winter's siege, this should be the safest city in all of Iraq.

Thousands of American and Iraqi troops live in crumbling buildings here and patrol streets laced with concertina wire. Any Iraqi entering the city must show a badge and undergo a search at one of six checkpoints. There is a 10 p.m. curfew.

But the insurgency is rising from the rubble nevertheless ...

London bomb links

Broadcast: BBC Newsfront, BBC audio / video feed, BBC London Radio (Real Player), ITV News , Sky News (video), Channel 4

Wires: NewsNow UK Feedroll, Reuters, Press Association,

Newspapers: The Times, the Guardian, The Independent, This is London, The Telegraph, Daily Mail Group, The Sun

Update Blogs: Uk Blog Aggregator, BBC reporter's blog, guardian NewsBlog London Bloggers, London photoblog, Metroblogging London

Technorati Tags: London, Explosions, Terrorism, includes Buzznet and Flickr Photostreams (also pooled here).

Wiki: 7 July 2005 London bombings includes timelines, statements, links, updates.

Credit where it is due.

Simply put: journalists could not do their jobs here in Iraq without the help of local staff.

They've been called fixers in the past, perhaps because they fix our mistakes. But over this conflict western journalists have come to depend on them to do much more.

They are colleagues in every sense of that word. They are friends.

Late last month, the Knight-Ridder newspaper group lost someone that could be called family.

As their Baghdad Bureau chief, Hannah Allam wrote:

[30 year old Yasser Salihee] was shot and killed on the way to get gas to drive his family to the swimming pool. The U.S. Army is investigating Yasser's death; it appears that an American sniper fired the shot that flew through his windshield, pierced his skull and ended a life that was bursting with promise. There's no reason to think that the shooting had anything to do with his reporting work.

What follows is a remarkable tribute to this man's life: what it meant to be a citizen, father, trained doctor, and new journalist in this war.

It is also a reminder of the many iraqis killed during this conflict. A reminder that American military authorities refuse to release their count of civilian casualties, and rarely give cause for such incidents.