Leila Fadel is Mclatchy's Baghdad bureau chief. A number of profiles have been written in 2007 about Fadel and her approach to covering the Iraq war. These interviews and profiles show Fadel's focus is not on American troops but on Iraqis victimized by Americans and the war.
A profile of Leila Fadel written in October by Nathan Altadonna shows Fadel's focus is on suffering Iraqis.
Fadel said she hopes her stories will give Americans a more accurate perception of conditions in the country. “The people in Iraq are amazing,” she said. The real story is the Iraqis who are scared to leave their neighborhood and have two hours of electricity a day, she said. “It’s important to see everybody as a person,” she said.Victimization is a common theme in Fadel's writing. In fact, she seems to see herself as a victim, too. Fadel gave a speech in October to the Society of Professional Journalists. A story on that speech is here. Reading Fadel's speech, you can sense how Fadel sees herself as a victim. "It's like piecing together a jigsaw puzzle every day. It's difficult and frustrating and sometimes you feel like, 'Why am I here?'"
Fadel's MSM colleagues approve of Fadel's focus on victimized Iraqis. Quoted by Editor & Publisher, here is Tina Sussman, bureau chief at the LA Times:
She is always out there talking to Iraqis -- regular people as well as political and religious leaders. ... When I read her stories, I feel like I'm reading the stories that Iraqis would like people to hear. That isn't something that always comes through in conflict reporting, where there often is a tendency to focus on men in suits and uniforms."
Interesting that Sussman and Fadel dismiss a focus on "men in suits and uniforms. " That pretty much rules out Ernie Pyle as a model for Sussman and Fadel, doesn't it.
If you think I am being too hard on Fadel, look at her own writing and judge for yourself. Here is a blog entry from Fadel from December 12, 2007. This entry is typical of Fadel's "Iraqis-are-victimized-by-Americans" articles. This entry is about a young family raided by US and Iraqi troops in the middle of the night. The troops are rough and condescending. They break things in the home then tell the family they can file for compensation. No terrorists were found. Later, a stray bullet pierced the home and killed a 3-year old child. Fadel also writes that a child had been killed last month killed after troops fired shots at a vehicle at a security checkpoint.
Fadel concludes:
"These deaths were not deliberate. But Suheila does not have her daughter, a three-year-old was shot as he huddled in the back of a car and two young people forever associate Americans with the fear they felt in the middle of the night when foreign soldiers burst into their home."Almost without exception, the Americans in Fadel's stories are rude, condescending, nameless. They kill innocent Iraqis, including children. Their actions make Iraqis despise America.
I previously blogged about Leila Fadel here and here.
