Farnaz Fassihi's email

Earlier this week, I posted an email that Farnaz Fassihi of the Wall Street Journal sent to friends describing the demoralizing situation in Iraq.

Some understandably had doubts of the authenticity of the email posted as it was without a chain of custody established. Here is an article in Editor and Publisher ("America's Oldest Journal Covering the Newspaper Industry") on the subject. And I also include a New York Post article (yeah, I know a rag) where it is reported that Wall Street Journal editor, Paul Steiger, has come to Fassihi's defense for what the Post is calling a "screed."

Finally, apparently Romenesko emailed Fassihi to get the story straight. This is what she said, "Yes, I am the author. The e-mail is authentic, my reaction is that I'm stunned at how this has rapidly become a global chain mail. I wrote it as a private email to my friends as I often do about once a month, writing them about my impressions of Iraq, my personal opinons and my life here. and then it got forwarded around as you can see in a very unexpected way."

You can read the email from Fassihi here.

Lastly, I wanted to note that Fassihi's impression of the current situation in Iraq may differ greatly from, say, Allawi's because that the Bush adminstration didn't write it! It seems that the Bush administration might actually have written Allawi's speech. According to the Washington Post, "administration officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the prime minister was coached and aided by the U.S. government, its allies and friends of the administration. Among them was Dan Senor, former spokesman for the CPA who has more recently represented the Bush campaign in media appearances. Senor, who has denied writing the speech, sent Allawi recommended phrases. He also helped Allawi rehearse in New York last week, officials said. Senor declined to comment.] Just how long is it going to take for people to wake up to the fact that we have let a rogue administration install itself in the White House.

Comments

[Meg]

Good save, Dear WiserBlog. You have restored our faith in your journalistic integirty.