Challenge to the Media

Reading todays article by Arthur Chrenkoff is a real day brightener. This is the tenth in his series of good things happening in Iraq. I encourage you to read his lengthy article for yourself. He ends his article with the following:

"And so another two weeks pass in Iraq, with the media attention largely diverted away from the positive and the encouraging and towards the sensationalistic and the tendentious. I'll leave the last words to Mohammed A.R. Galadari, writing in the United States Emirates' "Khaleej Times":

"Highlighting violence alone is not the role of the media. We have to see the brighter side too, and report them faithfully. That is how the reader/viewer gets a clear picture. Our effort should not be to create situations in which people are carried away by their emotions. What helps people in the long run is important. That needs to be projected. There comes the question of professional integrity and responsibility. Can the Arab media claim to be conducting itself in a fully responsible way, in relation to the developments in Iraq?"

This brings me to the question of why our news media does not seem to realize that this is what the people want, in fact what we demand from our main stream media. I believe Americans are capable of forming their own opinions if they are given all of the available facts. If I want opinion pieces in magazines, on the radio or on TV, there are plenty of sources that I can find. Even when I differ with the opinions expressed, I may read, listen or watch without being upset so long as it is identified as opinion. When we get faulty information, without scrupulous fact checking, the media fails its consumers.