Reuters' Angry Iraqi

From
The Weekly Standard

Dan Dickinson takes Reuters, which is British owned by the way, to the woodshed.

With the combination of The BBC and Reuters, it is no wonder the British have a bad opinion of America.

Nor is this detestation of all things American a recent development in Reuters' reporting. Indeed, from the start of the war, Reuters' quotes make it very clear that virtually everyone in this country of 25 million, with its contending ethnic groups and its history of enduring one of the twentieth century's most savage dictatorships, is united in at least one respect - they all hate Bush and America. No matter whom Reuters talks to, be they Sunnis, Shiites, or Kurds, male or female, they are all mad as hell, and they are not going to take it any more. Collectively, they are the "Angry Iraqi."

[...]

Nor does the Angry Iraqi attribute any of the problems their country has experienced since the liberation to terrorists or Baathists, at least according to Reuters. In fact--and Michael Georgy should get a Pulitzer for yet another scoop--it turns out that there aren't any Baathists at all! In a July 2003 report we learn, courtesy of one Sheik Kassem Sudani, that "The Baath is gone and the Americans know it. . . . Every time there is an attack on their troops they say it was the terrorists of the Baath. That's what the Baath did. They always blame someone else."

When U.S. forces succeeded in killing Uday and Qusay Hussein, an event other reports said was largely celebrated throughout the country, Michael Georgy could only find Iraqis who were outraged. "We will fight and fight until they leave," said Badr Mohammed--another of Reuters' eloquent 15-year-old sources.


MORE RECENTLY, Reuters' attention has fallen on Moktada al Sadr's abortive anti-Coalition rebellion where. "You Americans, do not fall into a quagmire," warned Sadr City Sheik Nassar al Saedi, "Rivers of your blood will flow." Reuters then goes on to cite their usual collection of America haters, who "damn [us] always."

What's going on here? Do Iraqis hate us with such complete uniformity?

Polls, most recently a March 2004 ABC News survey show that Iraqis are as divided about the war as we are. According to the review, 48 percent of Iraqis thought the United States was right to invade; 51 percent want coalition forces gone, though in months, not immediately, 39 percent want Coalition troops to stay. Though Reuters reports prominently feature Iraqis who favor the slaughtering of Coalition forces, only 17 percent of Iraqis favor attacks while 78 percent oppose them.

Overall, despite the uniform view of Reuters' Angry Iraqi that things are worse in Iraq because of the invasion, only 19 percent of those surveyed agree while 23 percent say conditions are the same, and 56 percent say they are better. To read Reuters, you would think that Iraqis' first priority is ejecting Coalition forces, preferably in body bags. The ABC poll says that the biggest concern of Iraqis (64 percent) is "Regaining public security."


ARE REUTERS REPORTERS the victims of chance? Have they simply not been able to find Iraqis who think well of the Coalition and see their lot as improving? Perhaps. Or perhaps there's something more going on.

Like their partners in crime, The BBC and The Guardian, there is a lot "more going on" at Reuters.
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