“All the News That’s Nit-to-Pick”

“U.S. Study Paints Somber Portrait of Iraqi Discord” screams the headline of an April 9th NYT article by Eric Schmitt and Edward Wong. They write:

“An internal staff report by the United States Embassy and military command in Baghdad provides a sobering province-by-province snapshot of Iraq’s political, economic and security situation, rating the overall stability of 6 of the 18 provinces ‘serious’ and one ‘critical.’ The report is a counterpoint to some recent upbeat public statements by top American politicians and military officials.”

There are a number of problems with this lead:

1. The document, alternately described as a “Study” and a “Report” is in fact a 10-page Powerpoint – a chart-based briefing. Titled “Provincial Stability Assessment,” the presentation is vastly less detailed or authoritative than either the DOD’s 56-page report to Congress – “Measuring Stability and Security in Iraq” – or (if you prefer a more liberal take), the Saban/Brookings 52-page “Iraq Index.”
2. The picture that the “PSA” paints of Iraq contradicts the adminstration’s public assessments in no way whatever. What the powerpoint outlines is what the DOD report elaborated: that the three Kurdish provinces are doing well politically and economically; that eight provinces of the Shi’ite south are doing moderately well, but could be destabilized; that the Sunni triangle still hosts an insurgency; and that the province of Anbar is a deadly mess. It is an editorial choice of the Times writers to emphasize the 7 provinces the PSA describes negatively over the 11 provinces it terms “stable” or “moderate.”
3. The document is not, and cannot be, “a counterpoint to some recent upbeat public statements” because it is not recent. Issued two-and-a-half months ago, it pre-dates both the DOD and the Brookings reports (released Feb. and Apr. 2006 respectively).

An undistinguished “talking points” presentation assembled in January hardly merits screaming headlines in April. There is plenty of genuine news from Iraq – for instance, 1st quarter coalition casualty figures (the lowest since the war began), and the upsurge in violence against civilians in Baghdad.

The PSA is, stated simply, not news. But having been leaked, it is obviously “fit to print.”

You can see the whole Power Point Presentation here in PDF format.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 11th, 2006 at 7:48 pm and is filed under MSM. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.