All journalists have perspectives that color and shape their reporting. Many factors influence not just what questions get asked but what issues get reported on in the first place. It takes much more work to remain objective when some of the people journalists cover are similar to them in terms of class and culture while others are very different. For embedded reporters in a war zone, there are further complications. They travel, eat, sleep and are protected by the soldiers they are with. There is literally no distance between the journalists and the troops thus their vision can easily be blurred. This has been a particular problem with reporting in Iraq.

Dahr Jamail
Dahr Jamail is an independent journalist who went to Iraq to report on the war and occupation. His articles appear in The Guardian, The Nation and other journals and magazines. His book "Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq" is published by Haymarket.