Verbosities

Two questions arise: Why is it important for IBC — providing an "irrefutable baseline" based on data collection — to challenge the methodology and conclusions of epidemiological studies published in the Lancet which go far beyond data collection and which do not in any way challenge their baseline as a “cautious minimum”?

Secondly, while IBC's self-described task does indeed require only "care and literacy", does not the task of challenging peer-reviewed science published by some of the world's leading epidemiologists require very much more? Does it not, in fact "require statistical analysis or extrapolations," and much else besides? Despite IBC's claims, nowhere in their discussion do they deal with the problem that journalistic reporting of violent deaths can decrease as violence increases, particularly when that includes violence against journalists, as is very much the case in Iraq.

More to the point, as data collectors, IBC are not in a position to comment authoritatively on the impact of violence on the capacity of journalists to report accurately from Iraq. As data collectors, they have no more insight, no deeper understanding, than anyone else.

The reasonable response to the question of political impacts on their database is not for IBC to authoritatively suggest that they "have dealt with" the problem of lack of journalistic coverage — to conclusively declare: "The death toll could be twice our number, but it could not possibly be 10 times higher" — but to openly acknowledge that their task is limited to the monitoring of media reports.

For leading mainstream journalists, and for IBC themselves, to present IBC as an informed and credible source on political realities on the ground in Iraq is highly inappropriate.