Media Spotlight

A Response to to “Blackwater gets OK to resume Iraq duty”

This is an article that takes the facts of the story without manipulating anything and then gives some back-up information in order to show you the whole picture. There have been other articles I have seen that push the policies of the white house by releasing opinionated news about how Blackwater is important to officials going to Iraq and how necessary they are, and how they risk their lives to protect them.

The beginning of the article shows the friction and disinformation between the Iraq officials and Blackwater that exists by comparing both comments and showing that Iraq officials think they will be informed of all of Blackwater's movements and then Blackwater's comments say they will not be telling officials precise details about their movements. Then, they show how the Iraq ministry did an investigation that showed that 11 civilians had been fired upon without provocation, and how the US State Department says Blackwater had been fired upon first.

Then the article makes sure to tell us about Rice defending Blackwater and their work, but it does so with a direct quote rather than adding propaganda to the articles contents. Of course, all the interviews are contradictory when asked about the level of violence, but one thing that is not is the deaths that the article closes with and ends with the exact number of troops that are dead since the war began. This article, I think, is the right way to cover this event. It is factual and shows both sides of the event with a non-partisan view.