We admired this piece in part for the way Fassihi’s use of the first person opened up her writing: She didn’t try to squeeze her insights within the more rigid conventions of standard reporting. The transparency of the piece, then—her letting us in on how she got her information, her inclusion of feelings and reaction—lends it greater, rather than less, authority. The piece has voice, humanity. We trust the writer’s intelligence.
Read “Reporter’s Notebook: Iraq Breaks From Past,” by Farnaz Fassihi