From WNYC in New York, this is NPR's On the Media.

I'm Bob Garfield.

And I'm Brooke Gladstone.

This week, the news from Iraq continues to be grim.

U.S. commander, lieutenant general Ricardo Sanchez, says three to six American soldiers are being killed every week by attacks ever more lethal and sophisticated.

Meanwhile, the mood of ordinary Iraqis is at least intermittently hostile.

CNN reported that a crowd of angry, unemployed men through rocks and set vehicles on fire Wednesday when they were turned away from a police station

where they had hoped to apply for jobs.

But is that a fair summary of the situation?

Last week we talked to Congressman Jim Marshall, who had recently completed a three-day tour

of Iraq, and found that the coverage coming out of Baghdad was far more dismal than the

reality he perceived on the ground. Dexter Filkins has been covering Iraq for the New York Times for the last six months.

Right now he's in Florida for a little R&R before heading back to Baghdad.

He says that the criticism that good news is going unreported is unjust.

I get emails from time to time from people giving the same complaint. You know, why don't you write about this and why don't you write about that?

And I remember one that stuck in my mind was, why don't you write about the fact that all 200 hospitals are open and running across Iraq?

That's a wonderful positive development.

That's true.

The hospitals are open.

If you've been in a hospital in Iraq,

however, the reality is far different. One should not picture a hospital in the United States.

A typical hospital in Iraq is a nightmarish place where they don't have electricity, where

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