Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Makin' progress in Iraq
Pretty clear evidence, I'd say:
The Voice of America's bureau in Baghdad has been closed for the past six months, ever since the government-funded agency withdrew its only reporter in Iraq after she was fired upon in an ambush and her security guard was later killed.Interestingly enough, a search of VOA archives for "Alisha Ryu" shows the last article by Ryu written on December 6, and not a word about the incident in which she was fired upon and her security guard killed. Nor does a search for "Baghdad bureau" turn up any evidence that VOA has ever reported on the closing of its offices, leaving it to Howard Kurtz at the Washington Post to report the story.
Asked why VOA has not sent another reporter to Iraq, [VOA reporter Alisha] Ryu said, "They didn't have any volunteers to replace me."
Despite this, let me just add that VOA is far from the most biased news source out there.