When Did Truth Become Un-American?

Molly Bingham, a US journalist who was famously detained by Iraqi forces and held in Abu Ghraib prison from March 25 to April 2, 2003, spent ten months reporting the story of the Iraqi resistance(her story published in Vanity Fair). Here's what she learned:

Lesson One: Many journalists in Iraq could not, or would not, check their nationality or their own perspective at the door.

Lesson Two: Our behavior as journalists has taught us very little. Just as in the lead up to the war in Iraq, questioning our government's decisions and claims and what it seeks to achieve is criticized as unpatriotic.

Lesson Three: To seek to understand and represent to an American audience the reasons behind the Iraqi opposition is practically treasonous.

Lesson Four: The gatekeepers -- by which I mean the editors, publishers and business sides of the media -- don't want their paper or their outlet to reveal that compelling narrative of why anyone would oppose the presence of American troops on their soil.

Lesson Five: What it's like to be afraid of your own country.

Read the full article here.