To the Editor:
Lorna Tychostup's excerpts of "homemade" media in Iraq ["Iraqi Press Monitor: Homemade Media in Iraq," 11/04] were full of good news: how Allawi is meeting with police and touring the sewage office; how weapons dumps have been arrested (sic); how the border will be controlled to stop Kuwaitis from entering; how the Grand Ayatollah al-Hakim thinks the elections are a "good example of Iraqi good will."
If you wonder why these reports don't really seem to jibe with accounts of independent reporters such as Christian Parenti or even senior commanders of the US military, take a quick look at the funders of the Institute of War and Peace Reporting which Lorna praises so effusively. How can Lorna quote the Institute's editor Watkins saying, "We don't have a political agenda," without at least checking that source? The most basic of research can identify the agenda of the institute pretty quickly. A trip to the Web (http://iwpr.net/index.pl?top_supporters.html) will reveal that this organization is closely identified with the US security apparatus. They are funded by the US State Department, and veteran Cold War instruments, the National Endowment for Democracy, and US AID, along with various foundations and international donor agencies. Watkins says, "I wish we could just get more Iraqi voices heard." I guess he means the right kind of voices with lots of good news.
For authentic homemade Iraqi media try these URLs. They do not receive US State Department grants and they don't reprint occupation press releases.
afamilyinbaghdad.blogspot.com
www.almuajaha.com
www.albasrah.net
www.karbalanews.net
www.electroniciraq.net/news
—DeeDee Halleck, Willow
Brian K. Mahoney responds:
Our thanks to DeeDee Halleck, co-founder of Paper Tiger Television and Deep Dish TV, and a veteran independent media activist, for alerting us to alternative sources for information about Iraq. Halleck's insinuation, however, that the Institute of War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) is a tool of US foreign policy is not borne out by its reportage, the diversity of its funders, or the backgrounds of its staff and directors. The IWPR, as Halleck points out, receives financial backing from government and quasi-governmental sources, but it also receives funding from the Ford Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, International Media Support, as well as George Soros's Open Society Institute. While our research belies Halleck's claim that the IWPR only showcases"the right kind of voices with lots of good news," we leave it for Chronogram readers to decide for themselves. We agree with Halleck on a fundamental level—government press releases are not good journalism, and what has passed for coverage of the Iraq war and the subsequent occupation in the mainstream media has been insufficient at best, and a patriotic smokescreen at worst. If readers wish to be informed, they need to avail themselves of a variety of media sources—foreign and domestic, progressive and conservative, professional and amateur. No one outlet, not the New York Times, not Chronogram, can provide a complete and unbiased chronicle of events.