<< Back to November/December Serviam

A Blackwater “Little Bird” helicopter hovers over Baghdad.

SIDEBAR

(Not) Reporting the Good News

Excoriation of Blackwater was unrelenting for at least the first three weeks after the September 16 tragedy in Baghdad that claimed 17 Iraqi lives. But when Blackwater was caught on video doing something positive, did all the major critics show balance by reporting the story?

When insurgents staged a complex assassination attempt against Poland’s ambassador to Iraq on October 3, some news organizations reported on Blackwater’s daring rescue of the wounded envoy and his aides. U.S. military helicopters were either too large or unavailable to land in a Baghdad street to take Ambassador Edward Pietrzy, who suffered burns on a quarter of his body, to safety. The U.S. Embassy called in Blackwater to send a “Little Bird” helicopter to the scene. A video journalist captured the skillful landing as the pilot brought the craft gently down to the middle of the street, with high lampposts on the right side and telephone wires on the left.

A few news organizations credited the company in a headline or lead paragraph. Some tucked positive references to the company down a few paragraphs. The New York Times fit the news in the 14th paragraph of a story. Some organizations, like The Washington Post, didn’t report on the rescue at all.

• Associated Press: Reporter Kim Curtis cited Blackwater in the first sentence of her story.
• Al Jazeera, the BBC, Bloomberg News, MSNBC, and the Voice of America ignored either the rescue or Blackwater’s role in it.
• CBS News made the rescue its lead story.
• CNN and the Los Angeles Times referred to Blackwater in the third paragraphs of their initial coverage.
• McClatchy Newspapers credited Blackwater in the headline.
• The New York Times, in a Paul von Zielbauer story, stuffed Blackwater in the 14th paragraph.
• The Washington Post completely ignored the rescue operation.
  

Back to “Blackwater Takes Fire and Strikes Back”

_______
From the November/December 2007 issue of Serviam.