(dave e)

yes, well, iraq is hardly al capone's secret vault

i'm wholly immersed in anne garrels' naked in baghdad, the narrative of her experiences in iraq as an npr correspondent immediately before and during operation look-over-here-and-ignore-that-central-asian-country-where-what's-his-face-is-still-at-large (oh, alright, "guff war II"). one of the book's thoughtful devices is the inclusion of a series of emails her husband sent to friends during garrels' time in iraq. they are at once disarming in their... well... tenderness and unforgiving in their wittiness. the following bit from one of his dispatches on her behalf left me in fits on this afternoon's bus:

She was much less charitable--in fact, she hooted with laughter--at the report that the poobah of kabul, the wazir of war correspondents, geraldo rivera, was unceremoniously dis-embedded and dumped at the kuwaiti border for giving away his unit's position by drawing maps in the sand on fox tv.

because this comes from a war correspondent's history of war, my pleasure was, as it should be, almost immediately smashed:

annie had seen geraldo in action in afghanistan and the picture wasn't pretty. he reported from hostile places where he wasn't, he claimed to be in firefights that were staged, or less than they were cracked up to be, and he recklessly endangered the lives of other journalists by announcing he was carrying a weapon. if his actions were not so intrinsically dangerous, and his employers so supportive, his role of joker would be funny.

...many more good things to be said about this book. i'd like to get back to doing so when i've finished, but for now, i'll just include her meditation on media that articulates fairly well why i maintain some allegiance to npr -- while its recent declines are worrisome, it still broadcasts some masterful voices.

anyway...

garrels was one of the very few american journalists in baghdad at the war's commencement. no u.s. television crews were able to (or chose to) remain. she reflects on her place:

looking around at the reporters who are left in baghdad i am struck by how few americans there are. who would ever have thought it would be pared down to sixteen, including photographers, with npr, the new yorker, and the new york review of books among them? the absence of cnn, fox, and the other large american networks has created an intimacy and a lack of hysteria in the coverage. the perception that television is most important, their money, their sharp elbows, their need for pictures, and their shorthand coverage all tilt the way a story is reported. i have to confess that this is a precious time that will undoubtedly never be repeated.

Posted by dave at September 20, 2004 8:00 PM | TrackBack