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Below is the extended version of remarks by CAPT Joseph Lizarraga, a corrections officer on loan to the Fallujah Police Transition Team as they conducted recruiting day for the local cops. If you're interested in understanding Fallujah and Iraq as a whole, it's a must-watch.

Lizarraga and I had many interesting conversations, ranging from the religious radicalization of inmates in local detention camps, to the manner in which the press has misrepresented the story of the American detention system in Iraq, to management theory in the civilian world vs. the Marine Corps. But perhaps the issue we most agreed on was the failure of the media to present a contextual narrative about the war. Body counts and bombings sprinkled with human interest stories are indeed newsworthy and true, but they don't come close to adequately giving news consumers an overview of the complex story unfolding in Iraq.

To some extent I still blame the oft-criticized flaws of the media: ideological bias, market-driven sensationalism bias, paint-by-numbers bureau & local stringer reporting, etc. But I also gained a little empathy for MSM reporters, because having taken my own crack at contextual reporting from Iraq, I failed in certain respects. There are so many moving parts in Iraq, it's deceptively easy to get lost in either tiny details or 30,000 foot abstractions; painting a contextual picture that incorporates both as well as relevant points in between is very difficult. That said, overall, our professional media could try a lot harder.

Posted by Bill at April 23, 2007 01:44 PM | TrackBack (0)

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