Drive-By Media

Back in the city of Diwaniya today. Done for now with the long trips out to the furthest reaches of our AO (area of operation). It was overcast this morning and on the verge of raining. I was unusually sleepy for having had a good night's sleep and was dozing off during the ride into town. Later on the weather began to break and I came out of my fog. I didn't feel like taking any pictures at first, overcome with a laziness, volunteering to stay with the trucks rather than go into the first station we stopped at. But with the first half-conscious shot out the window of a mother and daughter walking along the curbscape I was inspired, sat up, and started seeing people and things to shoot everywhere. I am the drive-by media.


The phrase "Drive-by Media" is used by Rush Limbaugh and other conservative radio talk show hosts. It's used in reference to news media outlets that package and deliver over-simplified news without digging deeper into the story for the truth, and typically have a bias. Ironic that Rush, although often as entertaining as he is irritating, is the king of shallow half-truth political news. The drive-by phrase itself is rather drive-by in itself, a short-cut sound-bite. The culprits per Rush and his peers, is the liberal media, but all the mainstream media is corporate controlled and at least manipulated by marketing to one degree or another. So, as I literally drive by taking pictures and blogging my opinions and observations on the Internet it occurs to me that I am now perhaps partly a member of this notable group identified by Rush.


Sometimes I think about what a perfect position I'm in to be able to take pictures. I'm always a passenger (so not actually driving) and on stand-by till an emergency medical situation arises. I can get out or stay in and move independently compared to the other fixed duty positions in the squad. Iraq is still a mess, but it's a far better place for people and their children, just trying to live normal lives, than what it was under Saddam, and under Bush. I don't want to get too "Op-Ed" With my blog. I want to retain an observational tone. But a little steam letting here and there can help to avoid a boil over, and that's the same medicinal good that writing has always done for me.


There has only been one emergency situation while on mission so far, a boy who was hit by a car some number of weeks ago. I get a knot in my stomach when I imagine the recent years gone by, the sacrifices made, and how lucky my unit and I are to be here during this far more peaceful period. To be a line medic deployed here before, in '04 to '07, at the height of the violence directed toward Americans, would no doubt have been a fully exhausting experience, mentally, physically, and emotionally. Although away from loved ones, luxuries taken for granted, and stop-lossed, I bite my tongue whenever I feel any sort of complaint near my lips.