IraqPundit is an Iraqi blogger who calls the NY Times to task for hyping the recent violence in Iraq. He posts his critique of what he describes as exaggerated reporting in The Wicked Warmongers.

IraqPundit acknowledges that “the violence in Iraq is bad enough to raise serious concerns about the possibility of an open civil war,” but contrary to the alarmist and opportunistic (any opportunity to bash Bush) Times, notes that the leaders of Iraq have agreed to work together.
How does IraqPundit assess the situation? Iraqis working together, media doing everything in their power to amplify the civil war meme:

From what I can see, Iraqis are working towards calming the tensions among a people who have been dealing with extremely difficult conditions since the U.S. invasion of three years ago. At the same time, I see a media that are determined to find a civil war in Iraq at any cost. The New York Times claims that the young clerics are having more influence these days than Sistani. But didn't the same newspaper just report that even Moktada Al Sadr is calling for calm? So where is the evidence that Moktada's influence is greater than Sistani's? Seems to me that it is quite possible that Sistani told Moktada to stop his nonsense.

IraqPundit goes on to criticize the Times reporter in a cited article for suggesting that a “spreading civil war is so detailed that it includes ethnic cleansing.” IraqPundit commends the more accurate reporting of Iraq the Model (see stories here and here), and asks, “What ever happened to checking for accuracy?” A good question, and good commentary on the very sad state of affairs at most of mainstream media, on anything to do with the situation in Iraq. As clear as this is to the American soldiers in Iraq, it is even clearer to clearheaded Iraqis:

Why do these reporters want to see a civil war so badly in Iraq? It looks to me that they hate Bush so much that they will stop at nothing to prove that he's wrong about Iraq and they are right. The reporters have sunk so low as to take this cheap angle of insisting that an all out civil war has been underway for three years. When will they wake up and realize that this is not a White House scandal. This is about Iraq and its people. Yes some people are being aggressive and I pray that the violence doesn't spread. But why do the media report exaggerated numbers of attacks and damage when it can only make a bad situation worse.

(Thanks to Mudville Gazette and Greyhawk’s many links to Iraqi bloggers such as IraqPundit and Iraq the Model.)