Are media observers spending their efforts and energies in pursuing the truth on questions that are pertinent?

Are the Americans any closer in getting the exact picture on the ground despite spending $8 billion a month in Iraq? Having paid a heavy price in precious American lives, when will the media watchdogs take on those who deceived the American public? Those who call for restricting plurality of opinion deny the option of diversity and deprive the US audience to ascertain the accuracy of facts for themselves. They should instead turn their guns on the cakewalk crowd who promised a casual march to victory in Iraq.

Is anybody calling for a campaign to question the likes of Ken Adelmen who misled the American media by claiming “measured by any cost-benefit analysis, such an operation would constitute the greatest victory in America’s war on terrorism.” Is the US any closer in getting the exact picture of the ground situation despite spending $ 2 billion a week? Former press attaché Robert J. Callahan recently told the American Journalism Review that out of 1000 personnel at US mission in Baghdad, hardly a dozen are fluent in Arabic: “Add to this the inability of most of us to read Arabic newspapers and understand television news programs.”

It is the absence of and NOT presence of alternate opinion that is injurious to American interest. More so, when owing to movement restrictions on US media in Iraq, security risks and language barriers for American expatriates and diplomats there is limited interaction to gather facts.

Those advocating for accuracy in media should clarify if they have put their full weight behind supporting and practically ensuring that the Americans get a pluralistic picture of ground realities. Until that happens, the American people will only mourn the regrettable loss of direction and confused priorities on the part of the US media watchdogs.