Greg Mitchell Got It Right When So Many Others in the Media Got Iraq Wrong

A BUZZFLASH INTERVIEW

It's funny that, with all the claims of how successful the surge is, you haven't seen a big surge in the amount of on-the-ground reporting by American journalists. You would think, if things were so calm there, that you'd be getting a tremendous surge in the on-the-scene reporting by Americans. But they still seem to be mainly relying on their Iraqi staffers. That seems to be a tip-off that things are not so hunkey-dory.

-- Greg Mitchell, author, So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits -- and the President -- Failed on Iraq [0]

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Greg Mitchell, editor of the newspaper business trade publication, Editor and Publisher, has doggedly reported on how the mainstream media botched the pre-Iraq War coverage, and the follow-up, for many years.

We e-mail back and forth with Greg from time to time and his indignation at how superficial and wrong most of the reporting on Iraq was remained strong. Most journalists, even if they saw the errors in the mainstream media reporting, kept quiet. It doesn't gain you a lot of friends in your profession when you point out their flaws. But Mitchell felt his calling was to the truth, not to participate in a cover-up.