I meant to just bitch to Cheney about it.

June 24, 2004 6:57 PM

"Frankly, part of our problem is a lot of the press are afraid to travel very much, so they sit in Baghdad and they publish rumors," Paul Wolfowitz declared Tuesday - a slur that didn't sit well with a lot of journalists risking their lives in Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq. After callouts from Howard Kurtz, Maureen Dowd and Editor & Publisher's new rabble-rousing chief, Greg Mitchell, Wolfowitz has submitted an apology. (PDF version.) Ever helpful, Wonkette supplies a translation. (mostly via Romenesko)
posted by soyjoy (9 comments total)

Wolfowitz No Count So Good
posted by homunculus at 7:14 PM on June 24, 2004

if the neocon chickenhawks like Wolfowitz had a tenth of the balls and the dedication of the average war correspondent, the US Administration would be in a fantastic shape today, instead of being the sad, scary laughingstock it currently is
posted by matteo at 7:26 PM on June 24, 2004

"Wolf' bites hand that feeds him."

Liberal media? Mmmmm...no, not until they feel slighted.
posted by stonerose at 7:27 PM on June 24, 2004

Wolfowitz was right. They rarely venture outside their sheltered world to get information direct from the sources living it. Oh, wait, did he imply that it was the reporters being so cowardly? I'm sure he meant to (*cough*) s/journalists/CIA spooks and Paul Bremer/:

...traveling outside the Green Zone -- into the Red Zone that defines the rest of Iraq -- requires armored vehicles and armed escorts, which are limited to senior officials. Lower-ranking employees must either remain within the compound or sneak out without a security detail.

...the inability to mingle with Iraqis has isolated the Americans. "We don't know the outside," the senior adviser to Bremer said...

Instead of building contacts at social events in the city, CIA operatives in Baghdad drink in their own rattan-furnished bar in the Green Zone....

Limited contact with Iraqis outside the Green Zone has made CPA officials reliant on the views of those chosen by Bremer to serve on the Governing Council. When Brahimi, the U.N. envoy, asked the CPA for details about several Iraqis he was considering for positions in the interim government, he told associates he was "shocked to find how little information they really had," according to an official who was present.

...[Bremer] travels with an entourage of private guards, most of them former Navy SEALs, equipped with helicopters and a fleet of armored vehicles.

Meanwhile:

• New York Times reporter John Burns and several colleagues were blindfolded and driven to a makeshift prison before being released after eight hours.

• Times reporter Jeffrey Gettleman and his driver were abducted by gun-toting men with scarves over their faces before being released.

• Washington Post reporter Dan Williams barely escaped death when his car came under hostile fire after he traveled to Fallujah.

• CNN correspondent Michael Holmes also escaped injury when his car was blasted by AK-47s, but two of CNN's Iraqi employees were killed.

• In another attack, hostile fire shattered the window in a car carrying Fox's Geraldo Rivera.

You'd think someone at CREEP would want to put the muzzle on Wolfowitz. Reminding voters of how unsafe Iraq remains well over a year after "Mission Accomplished" is not what you'd call, ummm, bright.
posted by nakedcodemonkey at 7:42 PM on June 24, 2004

I've been following From Ann Arbor to Beirut and it sounds like there are some journalists that are sticking to the city but there's certainly plenty that are seeing the rest of the country. Sure it's anecdotal evidence, but it's one more anecdote on the pile.
posted by revgeorge at 8:31 PM on June 24, 2004

Nothing like daring the very people who report on all that bad that is happening in Iraq to go and get themselves killed to prove Wolfie wrong. What a incredible little piece of shit he is. I have friends putting their lives on the line to show the world what a clusterfuck Iraq has become and he calls them sissies. One friend, mentioned before on the blue, was shot at by American soldiers and then had her hotel car bombed before leaving the country recently. She's the bravest person I know and she's not interested in going back. To qoute her, "I'm tired of being blown up, shot at and all to make pictures of body parts."
posted by photoslob at 8:42 PM on June 24, 2004

They're journalists in a war zone!

And your point is what, exactly? They're there voluntarily. So are the soldiers. Like the soldiers, they're putting their lives in danger (and unlike the generals and Pentagon civilians). But unlike soldiers, they can't shoot back. I don't know about you, but I'd be much more scared to go into a war zone without a gun than with one. They are brave.

That said, I don't think it's a particular tragedy when one of them gets killed. They are there voluntarily, unlike the unnamed, unseen, unlamented civilians that are killed every day.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 5:22 AM on June 25, 2004

They're journalists in a war zone!

Yeah, what did they think they were going over there to cover, a cakewalk?
posted by soyjoy at 6:38 AM on June 25, 2004

It's OK folks!

Any day now our fearless Chicken Hawk Leaders are gonna call up their most deadly reserves, the 101st Fighting Keyboarders, and Iraq will be "pacified" quicker that you can type "I love Israel!"

I hear they have all the other "Axis of Evil" countries in their sights too so listen up Iran and North Korea, 'cause you're next!

All your asses are gonna get "cakewalked!"
posted by nofundy at 6:58 AM on June 25, 2004