Jonathan Foreman writes from Baghdad in The Standard that the Baghdad press corps seems to be seeing a completely different Baghdad than what he’s seeing.
To an amazing degree, the Baghdad-based press corps avoids writing about or filming the friendly dealings between U.S. forces here and the local population–most likely because to do so would require them to report the extravagant expressions of gratitude that accompany every such encounter. Instead you read story after story about the supposed fury of Baghdadis at the Americans for allowing the breakdown of law and order in their city.
[…] There are frequent small demonstrations in the blocks outside the Palestine and Sheraton hotels–partly because that is where the press corps is congregated, but also because it’s an area that many Baath party officials fled to after the war began. Anyone who assumes that the atmosphere of that downtown area is in any way representative of the city would be gravely mistaken. However, many reporters have chosen to do just that rather than venture further out to places where they would have seen that far more typical and frequent “demonstrations” involve hundreds or even thousands of Iraqis gathering to cheer U.S. troops. Admittedly, some of those crowds include people begging for money, desperate for aid, or just curious about these strange-looking foreigners. “Most children here have never seen a foreigner” one Iraqi civilian explained to me, “that is why they are so excited.” Another told me with a smile, “Everyone here wanted to go to America; now America has come here!”
More irritating is the myth constantly repeated by antiwar columnists that the military let the city be destroyed–in particular the hospitals and the national museum–while guarding the Ministry of Oil. The museum looting is turning out to have been grotesquely exaggerated. And there is no evidence for the ministry of oil story. Depending on the article, the Marines had either a tank or a machine gun nest outside the ministry. Look for a photo of that tank or that machine gun nest and you’ll look in vain. And even if the Marines had briefly guarded the oil ministry it would have been by accident: The Marines defended only the streets around their own headquarters and so-called Areas of Operation. Again, though, given the pro-regime sources favored by so many of the press corps huddled in the Palestine Hotel, it’s not surprising that this rumor became gospel.
There’s more.
(via Assume the Position)