Infomaniac: WeBlog

Reactions

Interesting that the comments section of Falluja in Pictures has gathered at least as many comments as a posting on Dave Barry's blog. As one reader says, it proves people want to see what's happening: things they can't find in the major media. The comments are what would be expected, ranging from those reacting to the author's explanation: "a lot of people have sent me pictures of september 11th. please stop. i lived in lower manhattan on 9/11. saddam hussein had nothing to do with what happened that day."; those who hope everyone looks; to those asking why it doesn't show the violence committed by insurgents. One response:

You see photos of the violence committed by the insurgents on the news already, and there is no need to post them here. This website exists to balance things by presenting photos that don't make it onto the news. The point is that there is loss on both sides. But if you insist that the two-year old with his leg blown off is one of the bad guys, then there is no arguing with you.

Chilling news about some of the things mentioned here recently, from the Romenesko blog at the Poynter Institute: Kevin Sites has been getting death threats on his blog, according to this New York Times story, so he's shut down comments. This in reaction to his reporting of the killing of a wounded civilian in Fallujah.
And, Knight Ridder reporter Hannah Allam talks about working in the midst of violence in Iraq, including death threats and body parts.

Baltimore's City Paper does a story on the Johns Hopkins reseachers who did a study released in The Lancet recently claiming that 100,000 Iraqis have died in the war. There's been mixed reaction to the study, ranging from doubt to questions why it's not been reported much in the media. This story goes into details, for example clarifying that of the 100,000, many deaths were not from U.S. attacks but from malnutrition, lack of sanitation, and crime; but all of them a direct result of the effects of the war. However, one of the researchers states that at least half -- 50,000 deaths -- did result from violence, especially U.S. air strikes involving cluster bombs. And in Fallujah:

So many civilian deaths were reported in Fallujah that the researchers threw out the data, reasoning that the tremendous mortality rate in that city could not be extrapolated to the rest of Iraq. If the Fallujah data were included, the group's estimate of Iraqi casualties would have tripled, to 300,000.

posted by liz at 9:40 AM