Alive in Baghdad

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If you're interested in something a little more worthwile than a Matt Yglesias vlog, you should check out Alive in Baghdad, an ongoing independent internet video production done with fairly professional production values by a team based both in the United States and in Iraq. Their latest episode, embedded here, is an interview with a man aliased "Mohammed" who tells his story of torture at the hands of one of Iraq's many armed factions.

I watched five or six episodes of the series last night in quick succession after discovered it and was sufficiently impressed to PayPal a donation their way. Check them out and see what they think. This is the sort of journalism nobody does on television anymore. A lot of older journalists of my acquaintance think the ultimate impact of the Web will be to drive it out of the print world, too. I'm more of an optimist -- believing that dramatically lowered costs of production and distribution will, as seen in Alive in Baghdad, help spark a rennaissance providing those of us who are interested with unparalleled access to information.