Bobby Caina Calvan is a new reporter at McClatchy's Baghdad bureau. Today he blogged about an astonishing encounter he had with a US soldier at a checkpoint. According to Calvan, he tried to enter the Green Zone without a passport or drivers license. Without documentation he was stopped and questioned. Calvan got annoyed at all the questioning, and told the soldier he was with Knight Ridder (the company McClatchy purchased last year). The soldier evidently had never heard of Knight Ridder, referring to it as "Night Rider." Calvan's annoyance turned to anger. He continues, "I continued to get pushy. I asked him how could he not possibly know Knight Ridder. We're bigger than the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times."
Calvan's rude behavior gets worse after the soldier asked Calvan if he knew the number to the media office. Calvan writes, "I snapped. What's the use of these media badges if people like you don't honor them?" Then Calvan began gesturing like he was writing down the soldier's name.
Maybe if Calvan read this story - "Baghdad bomb kills eight near police checkpoint" - he'd have a little gratitute to the soldier.
