April 21, 2005

Marla Ruzicka: Media bias and conspiracy theories

Earlier this week American peace activist Marla Ruzicka was killed in a suicide bomb attack in Baghdad. I first learned about this when I saw a large amount of hits on the May 2003 entry "American Woman Travels Door to Door to Count Iraqi Casualties". I thought she'd just done something stupid, and I was saddened to learn of her death. She was truly a brave young woman.

Unfortunately, everything I said in that post regarding media bias still stands. Both NBC's and ABC's Nightly News have run extremely favorable segments on her, and I'd be surprised if CBS has not done so also. None of those reports mentioned even in passing that at least her prior work might be a bit controversial, or that her former organization (Susan Medea Benjamin's Global Exchange) is rather far-left. Instead, it appears that the left-leaning networks would like to create a martyr out of her rather than giving their viewers a fuller and more accurate picture.

As for any conspiracy theories, see the article "Aid worker uncovered America's secret tally of Iraqi civilian deaths":

A week before she was killed by a suicide bomber, humanitarian worker Marla Ruzicka forced military commanders to admit they did keep records of Iraqi civilians killed by US forces...

Needless to say, that has caused the DU forums to go off the deep end.

Posted to Iraq at April 21, 2005 07:06 PM

Comments