Journalism: There's still some left

Brief time-out from making fun of journalism to raise a toast to some folks who are doing it right. You might have noticed, in the past few days, that there's a war on in the Caucasus. (If it's a surprise to you, imagine how shocked your average Deputy Managing Editor for Presentation and Design must be: that pesky international news getting in the way of the Olympics and the Back To School package again!)

In particular, kudos to the McClatchy team, which is unusual in keeping alive the idea that major regional papers ought to have their own international reporting. Editors, before you give your front pages over entirely to News2Use and MomsDotCom and whatever flavor of preseason sport you can fashion a centerpiece out of, please bear in mind the virtues of having a correspondent on the scene and one or two in Washington who can actually get hold of a moving story and make sense of it.

AP, please consider this a request to get the thumb out:

An Associated Press reporter saw Russian troops in control of government buildings in this town just miles from the frontier and Russian troops were reported in nearby Senaki.

...In Zugdidi, an AP reporter saw five or six Russian soldiers posted outside an Interior Ministry building.

... In the city of Gori, an AP reporter heard artillery fire and Georgian soldiers warned locals to get out because Russian tanks were approaching.

... An AP film crew saw Georgian tanks and military vehicles speeding along the road from Gori to Tbilisi. Firing began and people ran for cover. Cars could be seen in flames along the side of the road.

Great freaking God. The Washington bureau gets to make up hypothetical opening arguments in a hypothetical trial, but the reporter in Gori who is under the gun in a frighteningly literal way has to write that "an AP reporter heard" the artillery? Could we have some priorities in this bar, please?

With the official Realist Sorting Hat on, I'm inclined to think that one particular aspect of the US-Russia back-and-forth in this conflict is being badly underplayed. Anybody want to guess what?