More than a month has passed since Leila Fadel, McClatchy's Baghdad bureau chief, announced she was leaving Iraq. On her blog Fadel said she would be back in one month. But is she back in Baghdad? Nothing has been posted by Leila Fadel on McClatchy's Iraq web site or her blog since she left Iraq.
Jay Price, author of the infamous article on the plight of underemployed cemetery workers in Baghdad, last authored articles 10/30 and 10/31. Before that, he he hadn't written anything in 2 weeks.
The recent articles on McClatchy's Iraq web page have been by written by McClatchy journalists who appear to be based in Washington DC. (Nancy Youssef, Warren Strobel.) Matthew Schofield is based in Berlin, but has written articles on Turkey which were posted on McClatchy's Iraq web page.
Bobby Caina Calvan, the reporter who created a firestorm after dissing a soldier then bragging about it on his blog, last authored a story
October 23. He has not been heard from since. On 10/25 Calvan posted on his blog that he is "on assignment." He previously told colleagues in Sacramento his assignment in Iraq would be just 6 weeks.
So what gives? Articles from McClatchy's Baghdad bureau are few in number. (So few that when Iraq news is in my local paper, the Sacramento Bee, it's usually an AP story, not a McClatchy story.) The reporters writing articles on Iraq are often thousands of miles away.
Is anybody in charge over there?
