ASNE panel on reporting in Iraq

Washington Post reporter Jackie Spinner and New York Times deputy foreign editor Ethan Bronner both disputed the notion that reporters in Iraq are somehow not getting the full story. While dangers there make the job difficult and force Western reporters to rely on Iraqi stringers (Spinner called the Iraqi reporters "heroes"), Bronner and Spinner said, journalists are still able to do their jobs.

"I think that we are, by and large, getting the story," Spinner said. Bronner said: "We're not reporting the story as we'd like, but it isn't quite as bad as it's been portrayed."

Spinner and Bronner spoke on a panel at the ASNE convention in Seattle this morning with Joel Campagna, of the Committee to Protect Journalists, and security trainer Paul Rees. The panelists, with moderator Ed Foster-Simeon (deputy managing editor of USA Today), discussed the dangers and difficulties of reporting in Iraq.

Part of the difficulty stems from the high monetary cost of all the necessary safety measures. "It is an enormous cost--you can not imagine," Bronner said. "It is almost beyond belief how much it costs."

Bronner noted that the situation in Iraq is constantly changing. At the beginning of the panel, a clip from a Frontline program about reporters in Iraq was shown. Part of the clip showed Times reporter Dexter Filkins riding in a car to the airport--which was then an extremely dangerous journey. "The airport road is actually quite safe today," Bronner said.

There are also emotional costs. "Just like any soldier in a war zone, journalists can suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder," Spinner said. "We would be computers if we didn't."

However, she added: "You come back from a war zone and the last thing you want to tell your editor is that you were scared. There is a lot of stigma attached to admitting that." She said it would help if more reporters would admit to the emotional difficulties they face after a war assignment.

Spinner said that she would go back to Iraq "in a heartbeat." "I miss the story," she said. "I miss Iraq. But I'm also very aware of the effect of war on a human being."

Bronner said that finding reporters willing to go to Iraq is "difficult. Not impossible yet, but difficult."