While some people in America believe that reporters are only focusing on the bad stories in Iraq, many reporters in Iraq are doing everything they can to find a positive story. Sometimes they even ignore some of the facts surrounding a story to keep it positive. Here are two examples.

The Americans are building a large power plant near Kirkuk. Transporting the plant's 700 ton new turbine from the Jordanian border to Kirkuk was a major challenge and took the combined efforts of over 300 soldiers. The turbine went on a 640 mile journey through some of the most dangerous areas of Iraq, yet it arrived without a scratch. The reporters who covered the story didn't mention that the project now costs about twice as much as originally expected and is months behind schedule. In fact, the reporters didn't even mention that although this plant is a significant achievement, it will do little to truly solve the electricity shortage in Iraq. In essence, the reporters left out a number of important facts to maintain the positive spin of the story.

A few weeks ago CNN ran a nice piece about an educational cartoon that will be used to help educate the children of Iraq. During the news story, the CNN showed a number of small children watching clips from the program. CNN didn't mention the fact that most Iraqis don't have enough power to run their televisions, and the CNN also didn't clearly explain where it was when it filmed the footage. CNN had come to a staged event inside the Green Zone - far from any classroom, probably because of the level of security needed to protect everyone involved. If that wasn't enough, because the key US government employee involved in the event ran into some technical difficulties, one of the editors had to use this own computer to show the television program so the kids could see a sample of the show. Thus, in my opinion, it seems like CNN did a nice job of leaving out some key little facts that could be used by a cynic to question the results that this program will achieve.

And in other news . . . soldiers from Hawai'i posted in Iraq can't show the shaka anymore!