Have some sympathy for the guys running the show. It is in everyones best interest for there to be a sucessful conclusion to the war in Iraq. The trouble is that no one seems to know what is happening, let alone have solutions. Getting the information is difficult or as the opinion below from the Weekly Spin has in impossible.
IRAQ "98 PERCENT OFF-LIMITS" FOR PRESS CORPS
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003122985
"Everyone is kind of groping around in the dark," says New York
Times senior correspondent Dexter Filkins on his return from
reporting in Iraq. Despite employing 70 Iraqi staffers, the civil
war there (Filkins doesn't hedge--"Yeah, sure" it's a civil war) has
meant the Times cannot safely access stories. Its own five
correspondents primarily spend their time pasting together reports
by the Iraqi staff, protected by a small army of 45 security guards,
armored cars, and belt-fed rooftop machine guns. "Nobody trusts
anybody anymore. There's no law, and the worst people with guns are
in charge." The Iraqi reporters know that if their association with
the Times is revealed they may pay with their lives, Filkins told
the Committee to Protect Journalists at a September 14, 2006, talk
in Manhattan where he is preparing to serve a U.S. fellowship. His
advice to other reporters thinking about covering Iraq: "Don't go."
Filkins said that the U.S. military is similarly hamstrung in
getting quality information: soldiers rarely leave their bases and
don't interact much with average Iraqis. Ninety-eight percent of
Iraq, including Baghdad, is too dangerous for reporters to cover, he
said.
SOURCE: Editor and Publisher, September 16, 2006 (sub req'd)
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/node/5227

Your assignment for next week,deadline Monday, is to write a news story about the news you personally thought the most important over the last summer. If appropriate find original sources rather then use just a news story, if it is a news story that you will use. The three new people, two of which have had trouble, should write an introduction to their blogs. If you still have problems we will work them out in the next class. See you next Thur. Clark