Last week, media coverage of Iraq came in for renewed scrutiny after several high-profile people, including Dick Cheney, argued that reporters there are too narrowly focused on the security situation. Journalists struck back, arguing that the security situation is the dominant story and that it is too dangerous for them to get out and do more reporting on the lives of the Iraqi people. Editor & Publisher has rounded up some of those reactions.

Some of them just don’t add up. The NYT’s Jeffrey Gettleman wrote, “If this all sounds depressing, it is. That’s how people here feel. I’ve been looking hard, but in two weeks I haven’t found an Iraqi optimist.”

Maybe that’s true, but the Brooking Institution’s Iraq expert Michael O’Hanlon wrote in the NYT on March 19th that over 60 percent of Iraqis remain optimistic about the future of their country.

NBC reporter Richard Engel was also among those offering defensive reactions of the media’s coverage. He said, “Most Iraqis I speak to say, ‘Actually most reporters get it wrong — it’s the situation on the ground is actually worse than the images we project on television.’”

Engel must not be talking to the Iraqi journalists who write for NBC’s “Blogging Baghdad,” who sound consistently more optimistic than the American correspondents. Take the most recent entry:

TRADING JOKES – AT SADDAM’S EXPENSE
Posted by NBC local journalist in Baghdad*
For so long Iraqis were scared to even think negative thoughts about Saddam Hussein, let alone mention those thoughts out loud.
But now the former dictator has become the butt of many national jokes and trading cell phone messages mocking him has become a source of entertainment and a new sign of freedom in Iraq.
The funniest part of the jokes is that they mimic Saddam’s signature voice and imitate him as if he is talking to the Iraqi people or his ministers.
“Saddam and Democracy” ridicules the former leader with an imitation of his harsh voice and colloquial language coming out of a cell phone saying, “The American people say there is no democracy in Iraq. Of course, we don’t have it! What do you want? That an Iraqi can say ‘I hate Saddam Hussein’ only to have his head chopped off in a wink? Ha Ha Ha.”
Mahmoud, is a taxi driver, but like many Iraqis, he is home every night by 8 p.m. because of the curfew that goes into effect at that hour. He explained that because of those safety restrictions, he spends most of his time inside with his family and the cell phone jokes are a constant source of amusement.
“It’s a strange time! Who could imagine Saddam Hussein one day would be the most interesting joke on Iraqi mobile phones?”
Mahmoud added that before, even if one were inside one