New Yorker staff writer says "what you want to find in Iraq, you will find."
By: David Campbell
American media coverage of Iraq and its perception at home have become skewed by a polarized nation wishing to see the occupation as a success or failure, George Packer, staff writer for The New Yorker magazine who has covered the Iraq war, said in a lecture last week at Princeton University.
"What you want to find in Iraq, you will find," said Mr. Packer, who delivered his talk at Robertson Hall on the university campus. "It will be there."
A key problem for reporters covering the war is expectations from the American public on both sides of the issue wanting to know whether conditions in Iraq are improving or worsening and being politically invested in the answer.
"When I get back here people ask me, ‘How is it going?’" Mr. Packer continued, and said his attempts to give an answer that accurately reflects the nuances of the situation ultimately prove "inconclusive" and leave the person asking disappointed.
He described the domestic press and "chattering classes" back in America as wanting a simple answer to a complex question is Iraq a success or a disaster? If the news being reported is good, it is seen as validating the expectations of supporters of the war while undermining those of people opposed, and vice versa.
"From the beginning, this has been a polarized and polarizing war," Mr. Packer continued. Unlike the Vietnam War, he said, the press is perceived as being "cheerleaders for one side or the other" and in some instances this, in fact, is the case. He described a new breed of columnists and reporters going to Iraq today looking to depict a country either on the road to democracy or spiraling into civil war.
"Iraq has been this blank screen," he said. "Because you know so little about it, you can project whatever you want to see onto it."
As a result, he indicated, the work of journalists seeking to report the news out of Iraq, as it truly is, is being drowned out. He said Iraq presents a complicated picture for reporters, one that doesn’t conform to biases on either side of the debate. He said the challenge is deciphering events and then describing them accurately.
Mr. Packer’s book, "Assassin’s Gate," recounts his experiences covering Iraq and how the United States set about changing the history of the Middle East and became embroiled in a guerilla war.
In his lecture March 28, he talked about some of those experiences, both during his time in Iraq in the spring and summer of 2003 right after the invasion, and in subsequent tours in the country.
He said Iraqis "traumatized" and fearful under Saddam Hussein were remarkably forthcoming about themselves and their lives right after the invasion, but returned to their Saddam-era reticence as conditions there have deteriorated "For the simple reason," he said, "that it is just too dangerous."
Mr. Packer said "the spotlight that was turned on Iraq has gradually shrunk" following the toppling of Saddam Hussein’s regime. He said reporters there are constantly weighing whether to "exchange a low profile for greater protection" by military escorts and bodyguards, and said many opt to forego protection for the low profile, which he said is needed to build trust with sources. "It’s hard enough to get people to talk to you anyway in Iraq," he observed.
He said just to keep a media bureau open, machine guns on the roof, barbed wire and concrete barriers are needed. "I’m not sure there has ever been a situation like Iraq, in which journalists are hunted," he said.

