Poynter letter

I have a letter posted on Romenesko letters, the popular journalism forum, on this ongoing debate over the media’s Iraq war coverage. Unfortunately, some of the links got left out of my letter as it was posted. Here’s what I sent in:

Saying Fallujah “fell off the media map after the major blood-letting ended,” Michael Fumento calls his reporting on Fallujah “the easiest scoop of my life,” an apparent reference to this June 1 National Review Online article.

Some scoop, though! A quick search on Nexis finds a lot of similar reports a few months earlier:

• Vital Signs of a Ruined City Grow Stronger in Falluja – March 20, 2005, NYT
• Fallujah: From insurgent stronghold to ‘safest city in Iraq’ – March 28, 2005, Miami Herald
• Fallujans welcome security, await electricity – Feb. 8, 2005, Christian Science Monitor
• Devastated City of Fallujah Begins to Rise from the Ashes – Feb. 21, 2005 NYDN (my paper)

While of course it’s admirable Mr. Fumento took the time to go to Iraq, it’s puzzling that his story doesn’t actually quote any, y’know, Iraqis. According to this April 14 Washington Post story, this Feb. 21, 2005 Boston Globe story and this April 15 NYT story, many Fallujah residents are less than thrilled with the pace of the rebuilding.

And unfortunately, things have taken a turn for the worse in Fallujah. As Edward Wong reported in the Times last week, in recent weeks there have been four car bombings, two police forts have been firebombed, and three members of the city council have quit, “presumably because they have been threatened.”