"Allbritton, a former New York Daily News reporter living in the East Village, plans to file stories directly to his weblog, Back to Iraq 2.0, next month as part of an independent news-gathering expedition to Iraq.

Allbritton says he wants to cover the humanitarian effects the likely U.S.-Iraq war will have on civilians in Iraqi Kurdistan, which is protected by a U.S.-imposed no-fly zone over northern Iraq.

While "embedded" reporters with backing from major news outlets bump along on prearranged Hummer rides and report what they see in the mainstream media, Allbritton will hitchhike and bribe his way through an area that could become the most dangerous place in Iraq outside Baghdad.

In the days after a U.S. invasion, Saddam Hussein may try to dump his remaining nuclear, biological and chemical arsenal on the region. Meanwhile, the Turkish government -- which has just as much animosity toward the Kurds as Saddam's regime and also covets the oil-rich areas surrounding the Kurdish cities Kirkuk and Musil -- may attempt an invasion of Iraqi Kurdistan while the United States is busy trying to overthrow the Iraqi government, according to a paper published last week by Human Rights Watch."

In a post to BTI2 dated yesterday, this pioneer, doing what I would imagine many war correspondents before him if living in a similar era of a daily growing means of instant communication of multi-media, continues to be thinking about what this means in the big picture of journalism,

"I realize that everyone who donates really is a stakeholder and you do have some kind of ownership. The dividends aren’t checks for your bank account, but the creation of something new, a journalism that owes its sole allegiance to the readers. While I may be the guy in the field, it’s you, the readers, donors and supporters, who are building a new, new journalism (apologies to Tom Wolfe) through your patronage and readership. If this adventure is successful, I sincerely hope more journalists take this route and begin to see the Web, and especially blogs, as a primary outlet instead of an adjunct or a marketing tool for their “real” work. Their credibility will derive from the trust of the readers and a bubbling, robust and independent medium will be the result, as professional as anything that came before it, if not more so."

I'm sure he'll have much more practical things to worry about when he actually gets there. The articles tries to bring some of that home. I've added his feed to My News Subscritions (and hopefully got that list back up in the right navigation) and I'm sure I'll have more thoughts on this. In short, I'd love to do this same type of reader (and other benefactor) supported and initiated journalism close to home, and family arts related.

I wonder if Chris is a Jazz fan? Maybe he could come on the show, tell us a little about this, and we'll spin his favorite Jazz tune.
8:07:52 AM    comment []  Google It!