Passing on the gospel

Duncan objects to approves of this report from McClatchy. I think--much like last week's vaunted AFP article--this is how journalism really should be done.

U.S. officials say the number of civilian casualties in the Iraqi capital is down 50 percent. But U.S. officials declined to provide specific numbers, and statistics gathered by McClatchy Newspapers don't support the claim.

The number of car bombings in July actually was 5 percent higher than the number recorded last December, according to the McClatchy statistics, and the number of civilians killed in explosions is about the same.

I suppose they could have attempted to go one step further by asking DoD to square the data (and then getting stonewalled), but I really don't see a big problem here. Powerful people say X, X is called into question by independent reporting. Good journalism! McClatchy in general is outstripping all of its competitors on many metrics and deserves to be praised for it. Unfortunately for them, they're getting much less attention than they would be if they were a generally larger organization.

Update: Jim thinks I misread. That would make more sense, I think.

Comments

[JimPortlandOR]

When I read Atrios' comment earlier, I understood him to be complaining about the DoD announcement (the 'they')

when they tell you something and are unable to back it up there's a reasonable chance it's not true. Still, that doesn't stop all of the Very Serious People from passing on the press release gospel.

Atrios wasn't, in my reading, praising or damning McClachy (although I think he'd praise them - as he has before), but talking about all the other media that will run with just the DoD storyline.

As for McClatchy's DC bureau (where all the good reporting seems to come from), they primarily serve city newspapers outside the DC area which don't often get picked up by the wires. They don't try (or aren't effective) competing with the main national media.

The McClatchy folks are missing a good biz opportunity though. They could produce a first-rate news website (with a catching name and slogan) oriented to attract more DC/NYC/nationwide readers by becoming known as the real fair and balanced journalists - which they usually are, far more than than WaPo, NYT, WashTimes, AP, etc.