Google alerts

Google alerts are filling my e-mail box.

It's my own fault. The search words are "Diyala," "Baquobah," and "Warhorse" -- the latter for David's camp, or FOB, as the Army labels it.

When I told people about David going to Iraq, many told me to stop listening or reading the news. I thought it about trying that, but it's not in my nature. I have been in newspapers as a reporter or editor for 35 years, and it's ingrained in me now to read newspapers, watch and listen to broadcast news, and now, to find it on the Internet.

So every day, Google sends me about 20 to 30 alerts, mostly the same stories.

"The U.S. military said 14 American troops have died in several attacks in the past 48 hours..."


"The U.S. military said 14 American troops have died in several attacks in the past 48 hours..."


"The U.S. military said 14 American troops have died in several attacks in the past 48 hours..."

The repetition is numbing and frightening at the same time, as if each time the total was new and additional casualties were piling up.

Most of the alert stories are culled from other bloggers, who have linked to major media stories or who are commenting on the war. I don't find much use for most of these; they don't give me new facts and their opinions are repetitive and rarely well formed.

The trouble is that I'm a media gatekeeper, you see. I look for the source of information and the value of those sources, an activity not always found in Internet sites, and I'm not really interested in someone's interpretation.

Still, I have found some off-the-wall sources I don't find in The New York Times, which by the way, is doing the best coverage in American media.

For example, InfoVlad.Net Clearinghouse 2.0 - http://clearinghouse.infovlad.net, clearly an anti-war site, is reporting that the 1920s Brigade of Sunnis is not supporting the U.S. effort in Baquobah, contradicting the Times stories. Which source is more reliable? Generally, the Times, but you have to keep your ears open to the non-American and even Arab opposition sources, especially in times of war. The one truth a reporter learns is there is never one truth, but many ways an event is perceived, comprehended and digested.The way the Army is perceived, no matter what they actually do or don't do, has and will be key to their survival.

So what do I get out of welter of conflicting and sometimes depressing and disjointed facts clogging up by e-mail account? I'm not sure. It somehow comforts me to try to put this puzzle of events together. For me, knowing is better than not knowing, but I also know it's a way of putting the events at arm's length, as all journalists do to protect themselves from the pain of life.