Explore Harvard's Nieman network Nieman Fellowships Nieman Lab Nieman Reports Nieman Storyboard

A breathless recounting of the invasion of Fallujah

COMMENTARY | November 12, 2004

Greg Mitchell, writing in Editor and Publisher, sees many newspapers once again failing to do hard, skeptical reporting in Iraq. "One step forward, two steps back," is how he describes it.


Wrote Mitchell:

"Many of the insurgents we sought in Fallujah (now that the election is over) seem to be popping up, and off, in Mosul, Samarra, and Ramadi, far from the eyes of embedded reporters. Meanwhile, 227 wounded Americans have been carted off to Landstuhl in less than four days...

"Dozens of embedded reporters re-enlisted this week, and hundreds of newspapers breathlessly recounted the invasion of the insurgent stronghold (which turned out to be not so strong), as if it was the turning point in the war. They were far from the scene, however, when several other rebel centers exploded in death and fury."

It's a natural, understandable and proper instinct to support the troops. But, as Mitchell so aptly points out, that shouldn't be at the expense of the rest of the story. We've been that route in Iraq before. Click here for the full text of Greg Mitchell's Editor and Publisher article.



The NiemanWatchdog.org website is no longer being updated. Watchdog stories have a new home in Nieman Reports.