I checked the online version of the
New Yorker and couldn't find quickly a link for this, but thought we might be more than a little interested in Bob McGrath's ditty about the Swarthmore College students who found that something is, er, lacking in the MSM's coverage of Iraq. Those college kids' advice?
"Pick up the phone."
Don't call the Times, or CNN, or Rupert Murdoch; call Baghdad. There are a couple of Iraqi phone books available on the Internet, and plenty of interesting people willing to share their stories.
Seems as if the Swarthmore students are on the same track as a lot of us. We will find out for ourselves, thank you very much.
more below the jump.
According to McGrath in his "The Talk of Town" segment, a number of Swarthmore students have been doing a weekly half-hour show called
War News Radio, broadcast from campus and podcast over the web, drawing "as many as three thousand listeners a day."
"We thought we were at a disadvantage not being on the ground in Iraq." Eva Barboni, a junior polisci major, said. 'But when you hear from reporters there that they can't even leave their hotels you start to think.'
...
"If you're working for a big American network, with a film crew following you, you're not going to get out in the streets of Baghdad," Wren Elhai said.
Seems that lots more folks than just the bloggers are dissatisfied from the "news" they are getting. Don't trust the news? -- Go digging.