Mike Moser "I Say" Published May 28, 2004

When good news is dangerous

Not all Christians are Davidians or Klansmen. For that matter, not all Southerners are members of the Ku Klux Klan. And not all Iraqis are insurgents fighting U.S. troops.

That assertion and why good things that are happening seldom see air time were among the topics NBC news correspondent Don Teague shared as keynote speaker at this year's East Tennessee Society of Professional Journalists Gold Press Card awards banquet last Friday night.

"It happens every day," Teague said of journalists being shot at while covering news events in Iraq. "Every journalist over there has experienced it."

We all hear complaints about the national media's coverage of events in Iraq since the war was declared over. Complaints are offered about news coverage focusing on American deaths and what some perceive as negative coverage.

Good things like the building of hospitals and schools seldom see air time, the complaints claim. Teague shared his experiences as to why that is so.

Some who watch the "NBC News with Tom Brokaw" or the "Today Show" will recognize Teague from his coverage of the tornadoes in Mossy Grove in Morgan County and in Jackson. The award-winning TV journalist joined NBC in 2002 and today is stationed in Atlanta. He spent several months in Kuwait before the beginning of the war and has covered humanitarian efforts in the southern part of Iraq after combat began.

Teague at length spoke of his experiences in Iraq in February and March of this year. Being a war correspondent is a good fit for Teague and NBC. He is a former U.S. Army helicopter pilot with military training in chemical weapons.

Despite this training, Teague, as do all TV journalists in Iraq, have armed guards assigned to them.

In the case of NBC, an international company provides security for network staff in Iraq. This company is made up of former British commandos who move with news reporters wherever they go.

Teague flew to Amman, Jordan to get to his assignment in Iraq. There is no good way to get to Baghdad, Teague said. The road from Kuwait City to Baghdad is one of the most dangerous in the world with insurgents and snipers at every turn and bend.

In a caravan journalists and their security contingents race at breakneck speed across the desert to get to their Iraqi destination.

Once in Iraq the stories that are chosen are done so with security in mind. "Any time you do a story, it requires travel and traveling is dangerous. Things are extremely intense, even for the simplest of stories."

When the Iraqi constitution was ratified it would have been typical to get "the man on the street" interviews and comments. In present-day Iraq, journalists would be at great risk to get those random comments.

When journalists do venture out of the guarded and secured compounds they do so disguised as to not give the appearance of a Western reporter. Iraqi drivers are hired and they use their old beat up cars so that the traveling reporter can blend in.

Teague spoke of one specific incident, the grand opening of a rebuilt school in an Iraqi village on the outskirts of Baghdad. The U.S. military had bombed the school during combat because the Iraqi army was using the school as a headquarters and to store weapons.

U.S. airplanes literally gutted the school, making the local villagers very angry. Soon after combat had ended Americans soldiers and guardsmen arrived in the village and rebuilt the school, virtually giving the community a new facility which was much nicer than the original, Teague said.

Teague and his crew was invited to attend the grand opening. Pomp and ceremony included speeches, cake, soft drinks and ice cream and was attended by nearly the entire village.

As the celebration wound down and U.S. soldiers entered their Humvees to leave, one of two ten-pound remote-controlled bombs went off beneath one of the Humvees. The female sergeant inside was shaken but not badly hurt. A second bomb was found after it failed to detonate.

"How do you do the good when it is being over-shadowed by the bad?" Teague rhetorically asked. "The miracle of the day was that no one was killed."

Teague said he was about 20 yards from where the blast went off. If it has been set out properly, loss of life would have been headlines of the day. As it was, the Iraqi who planted the bombs did not know what he was doing and no one died.

Teague said the incident illustrates his point. It was dangerous for Western journalists to even attend the grand opening of the rebuilt school. Hundreds of villagers peacefully enjoyed the speeches of the day and the refreshments afterwards.

But one Iraqi planted a bomb.

The vast majority of Iraqis not only wanted the U.S. to free their nation from Saddam, but also want the U.S. presence maintained to allow the new government a chance to grow and mature, Teague said.

A handful do not. And the handful make headlines and present a clear danger for those who try to report the good and the bad in the new Iraq.

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Mike Moser is the editor of the Crossville Chronicle. His column is published periodically on Fridays.