PAY ATTENTION to Ishtar al-Yasseri. She’s the editor of Baghdad’s Habezbouz, one of the hundreds of Iraqi media outlets now operating throughout the country–over 85 newspapers and periodicals have launched since May 1 alone–that will shape public opinion there for years to come. And thanks to the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), non-Arabic speakers can read what al-Yasseri and other members of the new Iraqi chattering classes are saying. Opinions on the Coalition Provisional Authority, for instance, run the gamut from supportive to critical. Take Al-Aswaq, the daily newspaper of the Iraqi Industry Federation. One of its recent editorials asked, “Isn’t it better to assist the council in doing its job than looking for reasons and justifications to make it fail?” A news article in another issue reported a spokesman for the Shiite Al-Sadr organization saying “As of today, we have no qualms with the members of the council, but they should remember that they are to serve Iraq’s interests . . .”

In contrast, an editorial from Al-Rassed, a daily published by the Islamic Education Center in Noor City, said “The implementation of democracy by the American administration suffers from hypocrisy because of its reluctance to allow the Iraqi people to practice democracy by selecting its representatives even for the sake of experiment.”