Thursday September 30, 2004

The Truth Slips Out

As debate night approaches, this e-mail from Wall Street Journal reporter Farnaz Fassihi about the situation in Iraq is mandatory reading. Among its revelations: Things are so bad in Iraq that, if elections were held tomorrow, Saddam would probably win, provided anyone had the guts to show up at the polls. “Go and vote and risk being blown into pieces or followed by the insurgents and murdered for cooperating with the Americans?” one Iraqi tells her. “For what? To practice democracy? Are you joking?”

Glad I’m not the only one wondering why I’m reading this in a personal e-mail circulating on the web, rather than in, say, the Wall Street Journal. Daniel gets it right:

Fahissi, through obviously careful observation, has determined what the truth is and feels free to tell her friends in a way that she can’t tell her readers, because her editors will call it opinion. In print, she’d have to have an equal number of official lies and evasions to balance out what she’s actually learned.

Remember that tonight as the official lies and evasions get underway.