Letter to the Editor

Dear Editor,

Mr. Schomber’s editorial on the subject of Iraq’s elections should be required reading for anyone who wants the real story of what goes on in the political structure of a military dictatorship. Misconceptions fed to the public by major news sources, such as “Reuters,” “BBC” and “The Guardian” are quickly laid to rest in this article. It seemed to be common knowledge that the people of Iraq had to either vote for Mr. Hussein or perish. They also had to write their names on each ballot, but Mr. Schomber shows that this must be completely untrue. It was not fear that caused the Iraqi people to vote for Hussein; it was stupidity. Furthermore, it must have been a common misconception to think that all political opposition to the regime was eradicated, because Mr. Schomber would have never offered to run if that were the case.

Honestly now, I truly do not understand how someone could be an editor and write something as outlandish as this. The subject of Iraq is not something that is difficult to research, and there is no excuse for such a shallow article being published on this subject. Mr. Schomber reduces politics to the level of a three-year-old, and he does it in such a way that leads the reader to believe that this is his actual level. Over simplification and marginalization of concepts is a danger to news reporting as a whole. Spoon-feeding an uninformed public does nothing to actually address the problem, rather make its causes and consequences seem meaningless.

David Tanner

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Nov 8 2002. Filed under Letters to the Editor. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry