The best US journalism on this country’s involvement in Iraq, both before and after the invasion, belongs hands down to McClatchy Newspapers. The former Knight Ridder chain was a voice in the wilderness during the runup to the invasion, with its Washington Bureau standouts Jonathan Landay and Warren Strobel all too often offering the only non-credulous reporting from any major institutional press outlet — the chain was mentioned by name in the New York Times apologia for that paper’s grotesque Judith Miller-powered efforts — and has consistently provided some of the best reporting from post-invasion Iraq.
Among the chain’s top Iraq reporters is Hannah Allam, who served as Knight Ridder’s Baghdad bureau chief during the first two years of the occupation and consistently operated out ahead of the journalistic curve. She recently returned to the country and, in what has become an awful ritual for returning veteran reporters, has filed a story comparing the last days of her first tour with the first days of her second one, and cataloging the dead among the friends she had made. The story is a must-read effort from someone who has spent much of her working life in the Middle East and whose fine work is made all the more remarkable by the constraints she has faced as a female journalist in a country that has steadily become more dangerous for reporters in general and female ones in particular.
It is, I think, impossible to overstate the value of reporters and editors who have maintained their journalistic integrity in the face of relentless pressure from the public, the government and right-wing attack dogs at the same time as many of their peers either gave up the fight or didn’t even recognize that they were in one. Allam and her colleagues deserve every bit of credit and support that those who appreciate good journalism can offer them.
Here’s a taste of the story she filed today.
I covered a day of the Saddam Hussein trial because I was curious to see the dictator in person. When I returned to the office, none of my Iraqi co-workers asked about their former president. They despise him, to be sure, but they shrugged and declared him yesterday’s news, as irrelevant to their lives as the current crop of leaders cloistered in the Green Zone with no control over the anarchic landscape outside.
Survival is their chief concern, and it’s reflected even in greetings. Local custom calls for a string of flowery salutations, but these days the response to “Shlonak?” – How are you? – is shortened to one word: “Alive.”
Go read it, and if you have a minute, check out some of her other work, and then think about dropping a note of appreciation to her and to Washington bureau chief John Walcott for jobs done superbly well in an era when you don’t have a lot of opportunities to say that.
Credit due McClatchy for great reporting in dangerous times
The best US journalism on this country’s involvement in Iraq, both before and after the invasion, belongs hands down to McClatchy Newspapers. The former Knight Ridder chain was a voice in the wilderness during the runup to the invasion, with its Washington Bureau standouts Jonathan Landay and Warren Strobel all too often offering the only non-credulous reporting from any major institutional press outlet — the chain was mentioned by name in the New York Times apologia for that paper’s grotesque Judith Miller-powered efforts — and has consistently provided some of the best reporting from post-invasion Iraq.
Among the chain’s top Iraq reporters is Hannah Allam, who served as Knight Ridder’s Baghdad bureau chief during the first two years of the occupation and consistently operated out ahead of the journalistic curve. She recently returned to the country and, in what has become an awful ritual for returning veteran reporters, has filed a story comparing the last days of her first tour with the first days of her second one, and cataloging the dead among the friends she had made. The story is a must-read effort from someone who has spent much of her working life in the Middle East and whose fine work is made all the more remarkable by the constraints she has faced as a female journalist in a country that has steadily become more dangerous for reporters in general and female ones in particular.
It is, I think, impossible to overstate the value of reporters and editors who have maintained their journalistic integrity in the face of relentless pressure from the public, the government and right-wing attack dogs at the same time as many of their peers either gave up the fight or didn’t even recognize that they were in one. Allam and her colleagues deserve every bit of credit and support that those who appreciate good journalism can offer them.
Here’s a taste of the story she filed today.
Go read it, and if you have a minute, check out some of her other work, and then think about dropping a note of appreciation to her and to Washington bureau chief John Walcott for jobs done superbly well in an era when you don’t have a lot of opportunities to say that.