Bad News (can't really report the) Good News (because of all the violence) in Iraq

I wasn't going to post this story becuase of the headline. The media is too polarized?

US media too polarized on Iraq news: panel - Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. media coverage of Iraq is too polarized between "good news" and "bad news" and all sides are missing out on a complete picture, participants in a panel discussion organized by Reuters said on Wednesday.

But keep reading.

Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, an Iraqi photojournalist, said it was wrong to say journalists were ignoring good news.

"It's a civil war, people are getting killed every single day, every hour ... everywhere in Iraq," he said. "It's a civil war and we're still shying away from the word civil war."

Zaki Chehab, political editor of London-based Arab newspaper Al Hayat, said security had deteriorated so much in the past year that it was no longer possible for Arab or Iraqi journalists to travel safely outside Baghdad.

Reuters Baghdad Bureau Chief Alastair Macdonald said the agency's about 70 Iraqi staff in some 18 cities around the country were finding it increasingly difficult to work because of sectarian tensions, to the extent that journalists had been forced to leave towns after receiving death threats.

"We have a lot of people very worried about exposing themselves as journalists," Macdonald said, adding that writing about reconstruction was difficult when security was so bad.

Journalists are not combat troops. So how does Bushco expect them to report the good news? Throw rice at the insurgency? Also, the Iraqis know its a civil war. The only that doesn't is Bushco.

Abdul-Ahad said a Pentagon program that paid Iraqi news organizations to publish positive stories had made life even more difficult for Iraqi journalists.

"How do you expect decent Iraqi journalists to go into the streets and write a positive story? Everyone would be pointing at them saying you've been paid by the Americans," he said

Must be another one Condis mistakes, because Rummy thinks that this is okay (pay for good news). This has made reporting even harder for Iraqi jounalists.

Semper Fi