mediabistro.com: Journalists: 'Iraq is a black hole' (Amanpour)

[DeepModem Mom]

Tuesday, Jan 31
Journalists: 'Iraq is a black hole'


....Last night on CNN, Larry King hosted a variety of journalists to talk about the war, ranging from Peter Arnett to the Post's own Rajiv Chandrasekaran. The somber discussion displayed not only that most reporters seem to have given up hope, but we also began to see some outright anger creep into the reporting....

***

The heaviest words...were used by Christiane Amanpour, about as experienced a war correspondent as exists right now, who said, "The war in Iraq has basically turned out to be a disaster and journalists have paid for it, paid for the privilege of witnessing and reporting that and so have many, many other people who have been there.

"And I think that's terribly, terribly difficult for us and unfortunately for some reason, which I can't fathom, the kind of awful thing that's going on there now on a daily basis has almost become humdrum. So, when something happens to people that we identify, like Bob and like Doug, we wake up again and realize that, no, this is not acceptable what's going on there and it's a terrible situation."

She also said: "I just think it is so sad. I mean, by any indicator Iraq is a black hole."

And: "This is a big drama because hope is the only thing have in the middle of this spiralling security disaster. And by any indication whether you take the number of journalists killed or wounded, whether you take the number of American soldiers killed or wounded, whether you take the number of Iraqi soldiers killed and wounded, contractors, people working there, it just gets worse and worse."...


http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlDC/sort_of_serious_stuff/journalists_iraq_is_a_black_hole_31643.asp

[seafan]

1. Here is the CNN transcript of Amanpour and others on Larry King last night

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0601/30/lkl.01.html

[DeepModem Mom]

2. Thank you, seafan! nt

[seafan]

9. Y're welcome! Christiane's is a pure voice in the wilderness. n/t

[DeepModem Mom]

11. I love her! And her voice, unfortunately, is heard very rarely in the US.

I lived abroad for a few years, an she's much more visible on CNN International. It's pretty outrageous -- the truth is hidden from us here.

[leftchick]

5. thank you!

I was looking for that to show my husband. :)

[leftchick]

6. Excellent response to freeper caller about reporting of soldier deaths

<snip>

AMANPOUR: Well, I think it's an incredibly good question. The caller is absolutely right. And, as Bob Schieffer has just said, of course we focus on very well known people and members of our own community.

But the reason that the deaths and injuries of the American soldiers don't get as much publicity is because we are by and large banned from seeing it.

The United States government has made a decision that we are not allowed to see the coffins, that we're not allowed to see the burials, that we're generally not allowed to go to any of the areas where there are wounded, U.S. military hospitals.

Perhaps you can see a little bit more in Landstuhl in Germany. Perhaps when we go to the hospitals in the United States. But it's very, very difficult to get close to that kind of real tragedy that the American servicemen and women are going through as well.

KING: Why, Lara, can't you see them?

LOGAN: Well, I just want to say that Christiane is absolutely right, and on top of that there's a real irony in that caller's question. Because it's the military themselves that pressure us not to keep reporting the deaths of soldiers, not to focus on the deaths of soldiers and Iraqis ever single day in this conflict.

They tell us you don't tell the good news, you don't show the schools that are opening, you don't do this, you don't do that, why are you always focusing on the death?

And you try and say to them, it's because as a reporter I just feel like every time somebody else dies, I have a responsibility to make sure that death wasn't in vain. That somehow, in some way, it's acknowledged.

KING: So the lady from Ohio should take it up with the Pentagon.

[Barrett808]

18. "Take it up with the Pentagon"

Brilliant.

[sabra]

3. Hmm... Is this the same Amanpour, that BushCo prolly spied on?

payback is a bitch.

[endarkenment]

4. Amanpour is one of the best. nt.

[MidwestTransplant]

7. Didn't Rupert Murdoch refer to her as the "War Whore"

[DeepModem Mom]

10. I believe he did -- as a war whore, and subsequently apologized. nt

[applegrove]

8. She also pointed out that the only "facts" we have on the war - or

on bombings in Pakistan - all come from the MSM.

I'd like to see more context in the MSM. But they still are our source for the basic facts. I'm thankfull for that.

[kayice]

12. Lara Logan is a good reporter;

I think she can get information from all sides. She tells it like it is and what the soldiers are saying even the insurgents, the girl does get some news. I've seen her treated like crap on news programs by certain senators or BushCo.'s boys. They treated her like---oh, you are just a dumb, female reporter, what the hell do you know?

[applegrove]

13. I didn't see much of Larry King. I was talking about Annampour.

[applegrove]

14. I didn't see much of Larry King. I was talking about Annampour.

[rman]

17. I'm not so sure the MSM tells all the relevant facts

Actually i'm pretty sure they don't.

[killbotfactory]

15. Goddamn liberal traitors! They are going to lose the war in Iraq!

The insurgency is in it's last throws, and these librul defeatists are throwing in the towel! They did the same damn thing in Vietnam! Victory is just around the corner, but these "journalists" keep advocating surrender and defeat!



:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

[FlaGranny]

16. We could

win in Iraq. All we have to do is bomb the country out of existence. But - they have oil.

more :sarcasm: