My friend Mike Otterman, author and New York based human rights consultant, writes about the fallacy of “objectivity” when talking about war:
In my view, journalism cannot be purely objective in any area—education, healthcare, crime, education–so why should war be any different?
The fog of war exacerbates the inherent problems of objective journalism, i.e. presenting two “equally valid” viewpoints and splitting the difference between the two, as the actors involved push their own objectives to journalists. They, in turn, select strands from each based on their own ideology. Editors favoring bloodshed over human interest only distort the picture further. When it comes to understanding Mosul, the best place to start is with Iraqi voices.