As a producer (among other titles) of the Outside the Wire documentary series, people often ask me the difference between our documentaries about Iraq and other documentaries.

I tell people that JD embeds long term with our troops...he never just goes in, gets some soundbites and goes somewhere else. I usually add the story about the News Director who told me, after we sent him a tape, that JD's footage should have been shot using a tripod...yeah, like JD's going to set up a tri-pod in the middle shootout in Nasser wa Saalam.  The News Director didn't get the whole 'this is actual combat in Iraq' thing.

But, just the other day, I found another answer to that question people often ask me. The difference is neatly summed up in a quote from this GQ article about Errol Morris' documentary about Abu Ghraib prison, Standard Operating Procedure .

In the magazine's list of the 100 "Most Influential People" in the world we find Moqtada al Sadr and Vladimir Putin in the category of leaders and revolutionaries.

Terrorist mastermind Baitullah Mehsud also makes the list of leaders and revolutionaries.

(In defense of TIME, Secretary of Defense Gates makes the list--and rightfully so.)

But it struck me that once again, the author and implementer of what could be the greatest strategic turn-around of the war in Iraq ignored.

Once again, TIME has ignored General Petraeus.

Al Qaida is in Iraq.  Al Qaida wants the U.S. military out of Iraq. 

The Democrats want the U.S. military out of Iraq. 

Michael Yon's 'Moment of Truth in Iraq ' is the right book at the right time.

Weaving first-hand accounts of firefights, a macro view of Counter Insurgencey Strategy (COIN), the micro-tactics implemented at the small unit and individual level and a deep understanding the role the media plays in COIN, Yon's book is one of the few that shows Iraq as it is now.

Michael Totten files this excellent report about a town in Iraq that has a special place in my heart--Kharmah.  

I was the first civillian to witness the budding Awakening in Kharmah as the tribes joined with the coalition and made a documentary about it.  I was the first to follow it down the Euphrates river valley through places like Khalidiyah. 

Long War Journal writer Bill Ardolino is headed to Sadr City .

"News is what people are talking about," the television news director, who happened to be my boss, told me. 

It was a rather circular description of 'News.'  People talk about what they see on the news.  If you don't know it, how can you talk about it? 

But that is what passes for news judgement in the local TV stations where future network reporters, producers and anchors cut their teeth. 

As it pertains to Iraq, the disappearance of coverage is based on the more tried and true definition of news:  News is the opposite of what 'should be.' 

(The Governor of New York should not be hiring prostitutes.  He should not be hiring prostitutes after he prosecuted a prostitution ring.) 

In the context of a war like Iraq or the greater struggle against the Mohammedan Jihadists, the question of what 'should be' is much more difficult to nail down.  Compounding the problem is the people who decide what 'should be' as in this modern era most reporters go into the business to affect some form of change in the world or to make the world a better place according to their vision.

Which is a good thing for independent filmmakers and small production houses. 

Here at Outsidethewire.com, our distribution has been through Amazon/Createspace (DVD on demand), which launched a High Definition service late in the summer.

Sorry for the delay in posting this, the DVDs are very close to being released so while we're waiting I thought I'd put up a couple posts about CPAC.

Many thanks to John Uhlmann and Rich Nadler of Americas Majority who sponsored the showing for us. We had a packed room, people standing in the back, people sitting in the aisle, and people wanting to get in to watch the episode.

I shot some video before and after the showing, the following is from before where Rich introduces JD and then JD introduces the Anbar Awakens episode.