Journalism, Ideology, and War Reporting

Posted by Chris at 12/3/2007 6:16 PM ...

LTC Bateman has a new and insightful column discussing the problems in journalism created by the gulf between regular citizens, journalists, and the all-volunteer military. In this case, The New Republic and National Review Online accepted reporting from Iraq and Beirut respectively that fit the editor's ideological views of the Middle East. In both cases the magazines received reportage that was exaggerated, biased, or possible fabricated on important events. In the case of TNR, the story was the behavior of the U.S. Army in Iraq, while the NRO reports focused on the erroneous reports concerning Hezbollah activities in Beirut.

Bateman also discusses the case of Bilal Hussein, an AP photographer currently held by the U.S. in Iraq who will be finally getting his day in court. As is predictable, there are ideologues on both sides, with the left claiming that the Army targeting Bilal for his work, and the right claiming he is an insurgent. The main problem with the case is that the AP chose a New York libel defense attorney to represent Bilal in Iraq, and is not putting a defense team that has experience in Iraqi law, or even speaks Arabic, together. Via Blog them Out of the Stone Age.