Of all the stories in the newspaper, the one that continues to attract the most reader interest is the war in Iraq.
Month in and month out, comments, questions and criticisms about the war and how it is portrayed in The Bee form a steady and consistent backdrop, ebbing and flowing as political events and military incidents dictate.
And that interest is reflected nationally.
Last week, a national survey taken in late November by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press found that the war “continues to be viewed as the most important problem facing the nation.”
What the survey also found is that “for the first time in a long time, nearly half of Americans (48 percent) express positive opinions about the situation in Iraq,” an impression that has gained strength since last summer. You can see the survey at www.people-press.org/.
The latter measurement is a remarkable turnaround in just several months, given that in February only 30 percent of Americans said the military effort was going well, the lowest recorded by the survey.
The rise in positive feelings by Americans coincides with a significant drop in violence in Baghdad, as has been reported on the front page of The Bee.
But the paper’s critics contend that such stories have been few and far between, and that the paper is reluctant — the harshest say institutionally incapable because of bias — to portray the United States as “winning” the war in Iraq.
If it were only that simple.
Reporters based in Baghdad say violence has declined and made life better for the people there, though the city remains very dangerous, and violence in other parts of the country, such as in the south where rival Shiite groups are fighting for dominance, continues.
“A lot of people have commented with questions asking me about the truth in Baghdad,” wrote reporter Leila Fadel, McClatchy Newspapers Baghdad bureau chief, in her Nov. 20 “Baghdad Observer” blog.
“First there is no everlasting truth in Baghdad. Is this sudden relative calm a lasting change or a lull before the storm? Nobody really knows.” You can read “Baghdad Observer” at www.mcclatchydc.com/.
The Washington Post’s Thomas Ricks, who covers the military, had this to say Nov. 20 in an online chat with Post readers:
“Well, things are going better. I just got back from Baghdad last week, and it was clear that violence has decreased. But it hasn’t gone away. It is only back down to the 2005 level – which to my mind is kind of like moving from the eighth circle of hell to the fifth.
“I interviewed dozens of officers and none were willing to say we were winning. What they were saying is that at least now, we are not losing. But to a man, they were enormously frustrated by what they see as the foot-dragging of the Baghdad government.”
While the increase in American military manpower via the so-called “surge” has played a significant role in the diminished violence, there are also other factors involved.
These include a six-month cease-fire called by anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army; ethnic cleansing of Baghdad neighborhoods that has transformed a city that was once 65 percent Sunni to now 75 percent Shiite; Sunnis turning against al-Qaida in Iraq; hundreds of thousands of Iraqis fleeing the country, etc.
All this has been detailed in stories appearing in the paper, although not always on the front page.
And the story of the war also continues to be one of contrasts and skepticism.
For example, though American combat deaths have dropped steeply since June, coinciding with the general decline in violence, 2007 nonetheless already is the deadliest year for American troops since the war started four and one-half years ago.
From a journalism perspective, there’s also a cold reality when it comes to war stories: violence is easier to quantify, the lack of it much harder and certainly less dramatic.
“Declining violence is not a sudden event like a bombing that kills 150 people in a Baghdad marketplace,” says Mark Melnicoe, The Bee’s national editor. A lull in violence “is something you realize over a period of time is happening. At some point you do a story.”
Of the approximately 225 front-page stories about the war that have appeared in The Bee since Jan. 1, a dozen have centered on specific acts of death and destruction caused by insurgent bombings or sectarian killings. Many others detailing fighting and violence ran inside the paper.
Most such stories, however, were published the first six months of this year, when violence in Baghdad and Iraq was rampant.
In contrast, the plunge in violence and corresponding drop in Iraqi civilian and American military combat deaths have made it onto the front page three times since October.
Melnicoe says he is on the lookout for stories that show there may be change in Iraq, though he is leery about misleading readers by trumpeting something that may not be permanent.
“I’ve been looking for stories that quantify the drop in violence. … It’s nice to have relatively good news out of Iraq for a change,” he says. “But you don’t know what’s going to happen. I think journalists are a little wary because we’ve been burned on Iraq before … There have been lulls before, and it comes roaring back.”
That’s part of the challenge, of course: to give readers the truest reflection possible of what’s happening on the ground and how it’s affecting people, and to put these stories on the front page.
