What Say You, Mr. Fisk?
January 10, 2007
Robert Fisk, the greatest living journalist (except for his dismal coverage of Lebanese politics), has been unsparing in his criticism of American style of journalism; with the over reliance on official sources he suggests American publications like the New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Washington Post may as well rename themselves “Official’s say”. This criticism, while clearly warranted, is disingenuous as Fisk has failed to criticize the same trend evident in his own paper’s coverage. The reports on a street battle in Baghdad appearing in the Independent — yesterday and today – are good examples.
In the January 9 issue of the Independent Lauren Fryer (of AP) describes how “Iraqi soldiers backed by US troops battled gunmen in central Baghdad”.
American warplanes screeched…above the Iraqi capital, and could be seen flying low over the Haifa Street area. US helicopters were circling above the area and witnesses said they had seen the aircraft firing into the combat zone.
One might wonder how aircraft and helicopter’s could possibly fire into a neighborhood in an overpopulated city without causing civilian casualties? Haifa Street, according to Rupert Cornwell in the January 10 issue, is “riddled with terrorist hideouts” and all 50 killed were “militants” and “foreign fighters”.
As the byline indicates Cornwell reporting from Washington DC, one migh ask, how does he know?
It was reported by “Iraqi authorities” and ”the government” respectively.
What about the reporter in Baghdad? Surely she must have access to better sources. Who are they?
“US military said”, “Police said”,”police said”, “Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said”, “The Iraqi defense ministry issued a statement saying”, “the US military said”, “US military spokesman said”, “Lt. Col. Scott Bleichwehl said in a statement”, “the statement said”, “Iraqi army reported”, “Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced”, “Iraqi state television said”, “Police reported”, “police said”, ”Iraqi Col. Eidan al-Jubouri said”.
Had he ventured further, he would have discovered that there are, indeed, other sides to the story. According to the Washington Post, ‘In a statement, the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party described the 50 killed as “innocent citizens.”‘
With the authority of US occupation army’s statements, public pronouncements by officials in Iraq’s Vichy army, and proclamations of the Iraqi police, known as much for its ineffectuality as its nocturnal role as a Death Squad, one would, of course, be forgiven for incredulity. One only hopes that the rest of the journalist’s at the Independent would benefit from Robert Fisk and Patrick Cockburn’s exemplary work and dispense with “officials say”.
As George Bernard Shaw once put it, America and Britain are two nations divided by a common language.
