MUST READ Editor and Publisher story on Knight Ridder and its Iraq news

[blm]

ttp://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/columns/pressingissues_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000978858


Knight Ridder's Baghdad Chief Replies to Criticism From Back Home



Early this week, Mark Yost, an editorial writer at Knight Ridder's St. Paul Pioneer Press, wrote a column that sharply criticized Iraq war coverage as "bad" for focusing on the negative. Today, another Knight Ridder writer who may actually know what's going on in Iraq, penned a reply.

By Greg Mitchell

(July 13, 2005) -- On Tuesday, Mark Yost, an editorial writer at the St. Paul Pioneer Press wrote a column that sharply criticized Iraq war coverage as "bad," for focusing on the negative aspects when there's so much progress to report.

Yost, of course, is welcome to his opinion, but some of his colleagues in the press quickly counter-attacked, in letters to Romenesko and others, pointing out that, ironically, Iraq coverage by the company he works for, Knight Ridder, had been hailed by many (including E&P) for often running a step or two ahead of all others.

One of those letters was written directly to Yost, by a colleague at the Pi-Press, Chuck Laszewski. "With your column," he declared, "you have spat on the copy of the brave men and women who are doing their best in terrible conditions. More than 20 reporters have died in Iraq from around the world. You have insulted them and demeaned them, and to a much lesser degree, demeaned the reporters everywhere who have been threatened with bodily harm, who have been screamed at, or denied public records, just because they wanted to present the closest approximation to the truth they could. I am embarrassed to call you my colleague."

Pretty strong stuff, but I wondered, in a note Tuesday to Knight Ridder's Washington chief Clark Hoyt, if we would hear a defense from his estimable Baghdad bureau, or what's left of it, following the death of one of its prize reporters there last month.

The KR response arrived late Wednesday.

>>>>>>>>>>>MUST READ<<<<<<<<<<<<

[housewolf]

1. What a powerful article...

Thanks for posting this.

[NMDemDist2]

2. kicked and nominated n/t

[WillyT]

4. Me Too !!!

:kick:

[BrklynLiberal]

5. Me three..

[glitch]

3. Agreed - must read. Really hate these arm chair propagandists.

Love to see them told off. Recommended.

[blm]

13. I think we're seeing a battle between serious journalism and propagandists

and I believe Knight Ridder is leading the pack of a good guys.

They have been doing the job of the NYT and Washington Post and history will notice.

[glitch]

17. Yeah - that's the only good thing about these past 5-6 years - whores

have been outing themselves like crazy. Politicians, journalists, corporate chronies.
It's very good to know who and what we are dealing with.

History is being written right now, and the beauty of the Net is that no one will be the sole rewriter of these times. So if the NYT and the WP planned to cover their complicity with their own rerewrites, they are in for the nastiest surprise.

[blm]

18. That's what I think, too. The fascists and their whores outed themselves

and maybe this country WILL be better off in the long run when their agenda is finally made apparent.

[BrklynLiberal]

6. kick

[frylock]

7. rec'd and kicked

:kick:

[FreedomAngel82]

8. Kick

One thing I get so tired of is how people always say "why not talk about the good in Iraq?" well would you rather be told lies or truths? I'd go for the truth.

[enough]

9. great article

kick

[Rockholm]

10. Great Article. Sad It Ever Had to Be Written.

[blm]

21. The sadness is an essential factor to their existence right now.

I think it helps their drive to tell the truth.

[G_j]

11. you are right, a must read

'Pretty strong stuff' indeed

thanks

[leftchick]

12. Excellent! This is short and to the point...

~snip~

From Clark Hoyt:

It's astonishing that Mark Yost, from the distance and safety of St. Paul, Minnesota, presumes to know what's going on in Iraq. He knows the reporting of hundreds of brave journalists, presumably including his own Knight Ridder colleagues Hannah Allam and Tom Lassetter, is bad because his Marine colonel buddy tells him so.

Yost asks why you don't read about progress being made in the power grid, which the colonel oversaw. Maybe it's because there is no progress. Iraqis currently have electricity for an average of nine hours a day. A year ago, they averaged 10 hours of electricity. Iraq's oil production is still below pre-war levels. The unemployment rate is between 30 and 40 percent. New cases of hepatitis have doubled over the rate of 2002, largely because of problems with getting clean drinking water and disposing of sewage.

The "unfiltered news" Yost gets from his military friends is in fact filtered by their isolation in the Green Zone and on American military bases from the Iraqi population, an isolation made necessary by the ferocity of the insurgency. To say that isn't to argue that their perspective is invalid. It's just limited and incomplete.

[blm]

19. I would bet that some of those "military contacts" are actually operatives

working for Rumsfeld and BushInc to keep up a positive PR campaign with "friendly" papers and editors.

[PunkPop]

14. Rightwing stooge meet THE FACTS!

Great stuff.

[blm]

15. And there are plenty of rightwing stooges who should read this.

.

[Octafish]

16. "I am embarrassed to call you my colleague."

Says it all about Corporate McPravda, eh?

BTW: You, blm, I'm proud to call colleague.

[blm]

20. And double that from me to you, Octafish.

.