On Riverbend
423 words.
Alice and Mrs. Krehbiel both took me to task for criticizing Iraqi blogger Riverbend, so I went and read over some of her blog today. I have to somewhat shamefully admit that I haven’t read her work in a while.
My conclusion is that Riverbend is a skilled, articulate, and evocative writer. I don’t dispute that at all. And I don’t dispute that she lives in a bad area of the world under a huge amount of stress. But I stand by my earlier statement. Surely anyone can see, even from a cursory review of her blog, that her stories would generally appeal more to leftward-leaning bloggers. For example:
In The Lancet Study, she writes, “Who to believe….? American politicians… or highly reputable scientists using a reliable scientific survey technique?” Highly reputable? That study was even critized by Iraq Body Count, of all people. She goes on to write, “And what about American military deaths? When will someone do a study on the actual number of those?” Implying a Bush administration cover-up is definitely a leftward-leaning staple.
In When All Else Fails, she writes, “There was a brief interlude when, with the first judge, it was thought that it [Saddam’s trial] might actually be a coherent trial where Iraqis could hear explanations and see what happened. That was soon over with the prosecution’s first false witness.” False witness? She thinks Saddam was framed? Innocent perhaps? She also writes, “The timing [of Saddam’s sentencing] is ridiculous- immediately before the congressional elections? How very convenient for Bush.” How many Democratic bloggers wrote that very same observation?
Her latest, End of Another Year, includes this quote: “The Americans have done a fine job of working to break it [Iraq] apart. This last year has nearly everyone convinced that that was the plan right from the start.” She doesn’t give any credibility to that claim by speculating on what America could possibly gain from a broken Iraq. In fact, she somewhat contradicts herself later by writing, “What was the point of breaking Iraq so that it was beyond repair? Iran seems to be the only gainer.”
I don’t think she’s writing fiction, mind you. They’re real opinions, but I think they’re more artistic than journalistic. And there’s nothing wrong with that, either. But I don’t see her as an independent news source. (She is not alone in that, either: Many other news sources from Iraq are not terribly independent, either.)
Thomas Krehbiel writes The Krehbiel Strikes Back, a generally centrist commentary on news, media, politics, and culture.
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