APOLOGY

Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz issued an unusual apology yesterday to war correspondents in Iraq after saying they reported rumors because they were too afraid to leave their Baghdad hotels.

On Tuesday, in testimony before the House Armed Services Committee, Wolfowitz agreed with statements by Representative Jim Saxton, Republican of New Jersey, that the news media's focus on violence in Iraq has eclipsed reports of progress there.

"Because frankly, part of our problem is a lot of the press are afraid to travel very much, so they sit in Baghdad and they publish rumors," Wolfowitz said.

My read is he's apologizing because what he said isn't PC...not because what he said doesn't have some truth to it.

Otherwise, how do we explain stories like this?

By Associated Press

June 16, 2004, 9:52 PM EDT

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Several large explosions rocked Baghdad on Thursday.

The source of the blasts was not immediately clear.

I see this type headline literally everyday that I search for stories about what is going on in Iraq.

But honestly...can you recall, or even imagine, a story reading "Blasts heard in New York, but we have no idea what it was nor what was destroyed."

The fact is that acceptable standards of so-called journalism in Baghdad are far, far less than they are in most other cities in the world.

Got another explanation?