Analysis of the pre Iraq war reporting
your final project, an eight-page paper, is to analyze and critique coverage of the run-up to the American-led invasion of Iraq. You can assemble your thinking, at least in part, by reviewing official U.S. government statements in 2002 and 2003 (including to the U.N. Security Council) and comparing pre-war coverage of the American rationale for war to the published findings of the Iraq Survey Group (the so-called Duelfer report) of 2004 and 2005, and to the coverage that followed the invasion.
In short, a key question before you is, How accurate was American (and British) journalism′s reporting on the state of Iraq′s Weapons of Mass Destruction programs as the United States pushed for, then led, the invasion?
The central question is: How accurate was American journalism′s reporting on the state of Iraq′s Weapons of Mass Destruction programs as the United States pushed for, then led, the invasion? Related questions should come from your previous exercises. I might add these, if you are stuck: What did the journalists get wrong, and how? What obstacles did they face, and how might this have influenced their reporting? How can understanding this poor episode in Western journalism inform how news consumers assess war coverage now and in the future? What can be said of the value and practice of skepticism, and why was skepticism not more prevalent in the work?
This paper should be 2,400-3,000 words.
ARTICLES TO ANALYZE
2001, ″Saddam′s Bomb″ on BBC, by Gwynne Roberts
2002, ″The Great Terror,″ in The New Yorker, by Jeffrey Goldberg.
2002-2003, Judy Miller in The New York Times. (cf, ″Now They Tell Us,″ in NYRB)
The value of skepticism and confrontation — the work of Knight-Ridder journalists in 2002-2003. Google and you will find it.
To apply yourself to this analysis, you must also familiarize yourself with the so-called Duelfer report, properly known as the report of the Iraq Survey Group, which was the summary and investigative findings of a post-invasion effort by the American government to determine the actual state of Iraq′s ″weapons of mass″ destruction program at the time of the invasion. The coverage of the Iraq Survey Groups work further provides clarity about findings that stand in contrast to some of the prominent pre-war reporting. The entire report, a CIA document, is on-line. I recommend you begin with it by looking at each section′s ″Key Findings.″
