Lara Logan needs our help!

From Media Channel [1]:

One would assume that Ms. Logan, as CBS chief foreign correspondent, has a fair amount of influence as to what stories she gets to cover, and that most of her important stories, once produced and delivered, will be broadcast. But when the story comes out of the mean streets of Baghdad, and doesn’t fit the officially-sanctioned narrative of Iraqis and US soldiers working arm in arm to help protect thankful Iraqi citizens, even chief foreign correspondents sometimes need to ask for help in getting it seen. Imagine our surprise recently when–over the digital transom–we received a copy of an email from a frustrated Lara Logan (see below [2])

In it, Logan asks for help in getting attention to what she calls “a story that is largely being ignored even though this istakingplace everysingle [sic] day in Baghdad, two blocks from where our office is located.”

The segment in question–”Battle for Haifa Street”–is a piece of first-rate journalism but one that only appears on the CBS News website–and has never been broadcast. It is a gritty, realistic look at life on the very mean streets of Baghdad, and includes interviews with civilians who complain that the US military presence is only making their lives worse and the situation more deadly.

You can check out the video, which has never aired on CBS, here [3]. Honestly, I can’t imagine what CBS news has against broadcasting, er, well … the news, but Logan is one dynamo journalist who has been right in the thick of it since the beginning. If everyone would be so kind as to pass this link along to as many people as possible [4] , the world just might be a better place for your efforts.

Comments

Ironic Distortion (not verified)Thu, 2007-02-01 17:11

Re: Lara Logan needs our help!

That video was obviously not put on cbs because it portrays what is really going on in everyday life in Baghdad. But I think the biggest part that would make cbs not want to put it on TV was the comment made by the Iraqi man at the end where he said that the US had failed to do what they had promised after taking down Saddam. They don't want the public to know that people in Iraq think we are screwing things up. They want us to think that the US is helping and helping to ensure peace...which isn't really happening at this point.

Jay DaverthThu, 2007-02-01 17:37

Spot-on Ironic, as always.

There seems to be some form of insantity in the media of locating a middle-ground that is supposedly balanced between two viewpoints. But this only works if both views are equally right! I think it was even Logan herself that said the reality on the ground is what it is (she should know) and the MSM has a duty to report that. Refusing to air a clip like this is irresponible pandering to a fringe that wants to simply wish away the troubles.