?I Was a Mouthpiece for the American Military?: I recently spoke with a former senior TV producer for Reuters who worked in Iraq between 2003 and 2004. The producer, who asked that she not be identified by name, arrived in Tikrit soon after the capture of Saddam Hussein on December 13, 2003, and was embedded with American troops for 45 days. She told me that, over the years, she has worked closely with the French army, NATO troops in the Balkans, and UN peacekeepers in covering war and conflict, but she said had never faced the sorts of restrictions imposed by the Pentagon on journalists in Iraq. ?I was,? she said, ?a mouthpiece for the American military.? [...]
During her 45 days in Tikrit, she told me, she didn't file a single story critical of the American project in Iraq. ?There was no balance,? she said. ?What we were doing wasn't real journalism.?
