Reporter Answers Criticism of War Coverage

NBC Baghdad correspondent Richard Engel cuts through the chatter about unreported positive stories in Iraq: You can easily get killed reporting them. So how positive can the situation be?

He says, “Most Iraqis I speak to say, ‘Actually most reporters get it wrong–it’s the situation on the ground is actually worse than the images we project on television.’ “

Crooks and Liars:

NBC covered the many complaints from the right wing noise machine (Laura Ingaham) in their efforts to blame the media for the failures of the Bush administration in Iraq. Richard Engel files a report on what it’s like to be a reporter in Iraq on The “TODAY SHOW,” this morning.

Gregory: Do we miss the overall story about what’s going on in Iraq, or does security remain the overall story?

Engel: I think the security problem is the overall story and most Iraqi’s I speak to say-actually most reporters get it wrong-it’s the situation on the ground is actually worse than the images we project on television.

We’ll see more and more reports coming out by the media explaining how they are covering the war and I think the Bush administration overplayed their hand in trying to blame their problems on the media.

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