When a blogger does an original Q&A or piece of reporting on his or her blog they needed to be applauded….read…and CLONED.
Once again, The Talking Dog has an original Q&A. And, as in the case of our co-blogger Jonathan Singer when he does his superb original Q&As on his site Basie!, TTD asks a series of well-thought out questions and gives readers unedited, unmanipulated answers from the news source.
Why is this important? Because the strength of blogs can also be their downfall. Most do NOT do original reporting or fact checking, but are extended op-ed pages (we plead guilty on that as well). Weblogs, in fact, put within anyone’s hands the technology to do ORIGINAL reporting and writing — and not just comment on newspaper, magazine articles or posts on blogs. Blogs would truly constitute part of revolution in news if, in fact, they offered more of it, rather than just reacted to it (perhaps a bit more reporting and a little less ranting).
Once again, we’ll give you TD’s intro and one section. Please read his whole post to see the whole interview.
The reports Americans receive from Iraq consist of a number of varieties, either (and most frequently) casualty reports of car bombings or attacks on convoys resulting in Iraqi and American deaths, or (on occasion) reports from the President or the Pentagon or other “official” sources that our media “is not reporting the good news out of Iraq.” Somewhere in that spectrum, as usual, a great many “human stories” are not being reported. I have the good fortune of being able to convey at least part of one of those stories to you.
After an e-mail “introduction” from Mark Goldrup of Spirit of America, I was “introduced” to Staff Sergeant Shanona Gregozek, now serving with a Civil Affairs unit stationed in and about Mosul, Iraq. Sgt. Gregozek was kind enough to provide thoughtful, detailed answers to some questions I posed to her concerning herself, her mission, and a notable project, specifically her work with the KWU (Kurdistan Women’s Union).
The “interview” consists of an e-mailed “Q&A”; I have not edited Sgt. Gregozek’s responses in any manner.
There are several fascinating and enlightening segements. Here are two:
Talking Dog: I understand in your civilian life, you’re not exactly a
civilian; can you tell me what you do back in Huntington Beach [California] for
the Police Department there? When did you join your reserve unit?
When were you activated for your current mission?Shanona Gregozek: I work as a patrol cop in HB- been on the job about 8 years now. I first joined the national guard in May of 1993. I left the National Guard in May of 2002 and took some time off. The war started in March 2003- I couldn’t sit by as it happened- so I signed back up. I joined this unit to get deployed to Iraq. I got notified in February 2004 I was most likely going to be deployed. In June we learned we were definately going- and in July we left for our pre-deployment training- we were in Theatre by early September.
And:
Talking Dog. What kind of access do you have to how events in Iraq are covered here? As far as you are aware. do you believe the
reporting is “fair”? Is there anything in particular that you
believe people here should know, or need to know?Shanona Gregozek: I have lots of access to reading the news. The bases have lots of amenities now compared to the start of the war. We have satellite TV, Army Times newspaper & internet.
No, not all reporting is fair, but that’s well known. There are many groups out there with their own opinions and agenda and either report false stories or don’t include all the facts in order to make the story go along with their way of thinking. Frankly that pisses me off- reporters should be objective. As people, we can’t help but have opinions, but we need to swallow that when reporting the news. They should state facts and let people form their own opinion. Now, that’s my opinion..
There’s so much people should know. For starters- soldiers are human, most of us are compassionate, patriotic, and consider all fellow soldiers their family. A lot of people paint us as heartless murderers, occupiers, etc. There are harsh penalties in the military for anyone who violates rules of engagement, or general orders. I get the feeling some people think we cover up bad things, we don’t. No soldier wants a bad seed in their company, it ruins morale and drags us all down. We correct each other if there’s problems. I could go on forever. But I won’t.
Read it in its entirety.
NOTE: The Talking Dog is on our blogroll under Left Voices. Basie! is on our blogroll under Center Voices. Citizen Smash (Right Voices) has also done a series of independent interviews and actual reports. Greg Piper (Right Voices) has done some original reporting. Jack Grant (Center Voices) has begun reporting from France and has done wonderful original stuff on the France/EU vote. Dean Esmay (Center Voices) has done some enterprising original interviews on the AIDS issue and also on Swift Boat Vets during the campaign.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.