Why the Press Got It Wrong

Personally, I think most ofthe press got it wrong because they wanted it to go badly. So they found every negative thing they could dig up and, I suspect, in some cases, make up. I am a blogger, not the best and hopefully not the worst either. I will always try and keep those who read this blog informed on the events of the day, with my usual acerbic comments. From time to time I will also post editorials on how I see events. I am not a journalist, nor do I pretend to be. I am just a sailor in the desert. - Sailor

Why the Press Got It Wrong
By Glenn Harlan Reynolds
Published
02/01/2005
Tech Central Station


For some time, I've been predicting that the blogosphere would move more and more from punditry to newsgathering and reporting, in competition with (or at least in supplementation of) the traditional media. And that's been happening. We saw it with tsunami coverage, and now we're seeing it with reporting on the Iraqi elections.

Some of this was pre-arranged. The Iraqi-American nonprofit partnership, Friends of Democracy, set up a central weblog collecting reports from correspondents all over Iraq. There were audio and text reports, with photos, from many different locations, producing an effect something like a news wire staffed by avid amateurs. (There was also a live C-SPAN appearance that was webcast; you can see it here).

Meanwhile, un-aggregated individual bloggers were doing the same thing. Some were Americans in Iraq: The blog Cigars in the Sand, run by an American lawyer in Baghdad, posted numerous photos of Iraqis voting. Another blog, I Should Have Stayed Home, published both illustrated reports and interviews.

But the real news was the Iraqi bloggers. Iraqi blog Iraq the Model reported:

"I walked forward to my station, cast my vote and then headed to the box, where I wanted to stand as long as I could, then I moved to mark my finger with ink, I dipped it deep as if I was poking the eyes of all the world's tyrants.

"I put the paper in the box and with it, there were tears that I couldn't hold; I was trembling with joy and I felt like I wanted to hug the box but the supervisor smiled at me and said "brother, would you please move ahead, the people are waiting for their turn".

Rose, a civil engineer and mother, blogged: "YES,YES, I did it. I have the courage to do it." So much for the terrorists' threats. She also posted a photo of her ink-stained finger.

Meanwhile, Iraqi blogger Zeyad reported from Amman, Jordan, that interest in democracy seems to be spreading:

"The turnout in Iraq was really like nothing that I had expected. I was glued in front of tv for most of the day. My mother was in tears watching the scenes from all over the country. Iraqis had voted for peace and for a better future, despite the surrounding madness. I sincerely hope this small step would be the start of much bolder ones, and that the minority which insists on enslaving the majority of Iraqis would soon realise that all that they have accomplished till now is in vain.

"Another surprise was to see some Iraqis who had fled the country in fear of reprisals, such as the families of ex-regime figures and ex-Ba'athists, actually voting and encouraging others to vote! I know some of those from school and college and I imagined they would be bitter about the whole process, but many were not.

"Jordanians were wishing Iraqis luck these few days everywhere on the streets. One young man at a mall, on recognising my Iraqi accent, asked me who I would be voting for. I politely told him that I would vote for who I believe is sincere. Strangely, he said that he personally preferred Allawi and hoped most Iraqis would be voting for him. I wished his country luck as well since the King had promised direct elections for municipal councils as a first step. He dismissed that as nothing much and said that 'One should start from the 'Head' down, not the other way around'."

That's the idea. And the growth of the Internet means that it's likely to spread faster than it would otherwise. That's a good thing, because Mark Steyn thinks -- and I agree -- that the traditional media's reporting on Iraq was seriously flawed:

"The Western press are all holed up in the same part of Baghdad, and the insurgents very conveniently set off bombs visible from their hotel windows in perfect synchronization with the U.S. TV news cycle"

Indeed it was, and it colored the press coverage. Yeah, there were terrorist attacks. But you could tell -- and some of us did tell -- from reading Iraqi blogs that this wasn't the whole picture, something that's been true since the invasion two years ago. The good news is that Big Media coverage of the elections seemed a bit less disdainful, and a bit more accurate, than many of us expected. Is it because they know they're being watched?

I hope so. Because there's only going to be more of that. As Ed Cone writes:

"In the final book of 'The Chronicles of Narnia,' there is a description of a building that is bigger inside than it is outside. That's how I see traditional journalism in the age of the Internet. . . . This idea that there is more knowledge outside the newsroom than in it, that as writer Dan Gillmor puts it, 'my readers know more than I do,' is of course the point of bothering to report stories in the first place. What's new is the ability of individuals to publish their own words, as well as audio and video, cheaply and easily on the Web. Experts and eyewitnesses are no longer consigned to audience status. They don't have to wait to be interviewed by professionals but can push information out at their own discretion."

That's absolutely right. It's the end of the old media world as we knew it. And I feel fine.