Iraq and News Reporters

I'm still amazed at how I can roam the blogs and find news that's important to know. At the same time I'm also fascinated at how the important news can filter from place to place. Although sometimes you hear some information on the blogs from A who heard it from B who heard it from C, the difference from the way news traveled in the past are the links which take you back to the original source, maintaining, for the most part, the accuracy of the original story. The MSM should hardly complain about blogs since very often it's their own news that's spreading around the country.

The blog, Low Rent Rat (okay, a few blogs could work a little on their names), has a transcript from CNN with some useful comments by CBS reporter Lara Logan who answers complaints from Republicans and explains why there hasn't been more coverage of good news from Iraq:

...what I would point out is that you can't travel around this country anymore without military protection. You can't travel without armed guards. You're not free to go every time there's a school opening or there's some reconstruction project that's being done.

We don't have the ability to go out and cover those. If they want to see a fair picture of what's happening in Iraq, then you have to first start with the security issue.

When journalists are free to move around this country, then they will be free to report on everything that's going on. But as long as you're a prisoner of the terrible security situation here, then that's going to be reflected in your coverage.

Of course, Bush and Cheney fail to mention how few of the reconstruction dollars actually found their way into reconstruction projects. In the beginning of the Iraq war, it was much easier for journalists to move around but things have gotten worse and quite a few journalists have died or have been badly injured; someone ought to tell Cheney and Bush.


(Thanks to SpannerJaxs of Low Rent Rat for his good post; he also give thanks to the blog, Crooks and Liars.)