New York Review of Books Looks at McClatchy's Iraqi Bloggers
Journalist and author Michael Massing has a gripping report in the January 17, 2008, edition of the New York Review of Books on McClatchy Newspapers' valuable Iraqi bloggers. They publish the Inside Iraq blog.
"About a year ago," Massing writes, McClatchy "set up a blog exclusively for contributions from its Iraqi staff (which "currently has five Iraqi members—former teachers, doctors, and office managers who, joining the staff as translators and "fixers," have received on-the-job training as reporters"). "Inside Iraq," it's called, and several times a week the Iraqi staff members post on it about their experiences and impressions (the blog can be found at washingtonbureau.typepad.com/iraq)," Massing adds.
"It's an opportunity for Iraqis to talk directly to an American audience," Massing quotes Leila Fadel, the current bureau chief, whose father is from Lebanon and whose mother is from Michigan, who grew up in Saudi Arabia, and who is all of twenty-six years old, as saying. "As such, the blog fills a major gap in the coverage," he writes
I read the article and some of the posts at Inside Iraq. You definitely get a view of the war you don't get in most American newspapers. That's because the blog concentrates on how the war affects ordinary Iraqis, whereas most publications in the states are concerned about how American soldiers in Iraq are faring.
If you want to read Massing's entire report, see "As Iraqis See It.
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