New York Observer
That's what one war reporter asks about WSJ reporter
Farnaz Fassihi's
e-mail on life in Baghdad. "The facts ('there are several car bombs going off each day around the country') and the opinions (Iraq is 'a foreign policy failure bound to haunt the United States') are both commonplaces for reporters on the ground, and some of them have expressed as much in their own back-channel communications in the past year," writes
Tom Scocca. PLUS:
Food & Wine's editor explains why she did a "Wine Issue."
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"Fact for fact, Fassihi's e-mail offers little that can't be found in published accounts," notes a
Houston Chronicle editorial. "What has made it dart from Web site to Web site is the contrast of unvarnished personal expression with Fassihi's status as reporter for an establishment newspaper. What has made the piece resonate is that its voice was not meant for the public."
(Houston Chronicle)
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Fassihi is on a long-planned vacation, not an e-mail-related leave (E&P)
