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Reporting the Iraq War
October 07, 2008 11:35 AM
By Mike Gudgell, ABC News Baghdad Bureau Chief
Many journalists have spent time in Iraq since the beginning of the war. Some have lost their lives. Others have moved on. I wouldn’t presume to judge my colleagues. Some I don’t even know. But I do know the few who are still here. The military calls us “the enduring press.” All do excellent work in difficult conditions. Many have given up years of their careers to cover this war. Families have suffered. Marriages have crumbled. You have to be passionate about telling a story five years old.
It can make you mad—both angry and insane. There’s a yawning chasm between what is real and what readers, listeners and viewers perceive to be the reality of war and life in Iraq. Misunderstanding is fuel for a storyteller’s fire. There’s a dark side to this passion and it comes from the twisted seduction of war. There’s no other richer environment for a journalist. There are stories everywhere--compelling dramas of life and death. People like us are forced into tests of character and choices that are both cruel and inspiring.
We face a new reality. The interest in Iraq has dimmed. It’s now an equal fight to both tell a story and find an audience.
It’s a tough profession and the best “foreign” newsmen in Iraq are women. If you want a window into the lives of Iraqis, if you have an interest in the complex, layered world of war then these women tell it best. Not in order, other than that which comes to mind, are;
- Leila Fadel of the McClatchy newspaper chain
- Allisa Rubin of The New York Times and former correspondent for the Los Angeles Times
- Lourdes Garcia-Navarro, we know her as Lulu, with National Public Radio
- Tina Susman with the Los Angeles Times
- Deborah Haynes with the Times of London
They are all aggressive, smart and committed to telling you about Iraq and the war. I don’t know why the best journalists in Iraq are women. If I had to pick the next five most of them would be women too.
I’d like to think that the more people know about war the less likely it becomes. That’s the reason I’m here. I don’t know theirs but I do know they are here for a reason. Find them, listen or read. I think you will agree.
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October 7, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (9)
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It depends on if they push the "war worked" storyline...
which seems to come out of the need to look unbiased.
Posted by: dl | Oct 7, 2008 11:54:02 AM
God Bless our men and women and their families.
Posted by: beck | Oct 7, 2008 12:02:06 PM
"the twisted seduction of war"
Yes, let's have no more heroes-passing-out-candy-for-the-kiddies-of-Iraq crap. Tell us what happens when a child is playing in the road and a convoy comes along. Tell us why there is still no electricity, and why the drinking water is full of sewage.
Let your intrepid journalists tell us what ExxonMobile and the Pentagon will do with those 200 billion barrels of easy-to-reach crude, and how the bloody carnage and misery was all worth it after all.
Posted by: ariel | Oct 7, 2008 1:08:58 PM
...yawn...
Posted by: Jazz | Oct 7, 2008 1:40:03 PM
Thank you for this. You're one of the good guys that does real journalism, not fact-twisting and manipulation of the readers. I will check out these other journalists and see what they have to say.
Posted by: Meredith | Oct 7, 2008 8:40:08 PM
cool
Posted by: cornell | Oct 7, 2008 10:54:00 PM
Beck, if it's so upseting to you, and you criticize what our military is doing over there, why not take a trip over and try to help the Iraqi people with your take on what should be going on. Go over and try to deliver to them clean drinking water, and hell, why not even see if you can fix theyre electrical problem. Oh and when you do be sure to post a comment letting us know so that we can all give you a big round of applause!
Posted by: marine_Wife1223 | Oct 10, 2008 4:14:43 PM
Correction: the above comment was to ariel.
Posted by: marine_wife1223 | Oct 10, 2008 4:15:57 PM
How did we start in afganhstan looking for bin ladan to iraq looking for oil. Let me guess. Bush is finishing his fathers work
Posted by: Adam | Oct 12, 2008 10:33:30 AM
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