Bill makes time in his busy schedule to do some TV with me!

By David Mac Dougall

It’s a busier-than-usual week for the Baghdad bureau – as Bill Hemmer and his team originate part of their “America’s Newsroom” show live from Iraq.

We don’t often get the big productions coming to Baghdad, so it’s been great to see how other teams operate, how the show comes together and all the planning work that goes into producing two hours of live television.  I’ve worked producing live TV shows before (really, it’s any excuse for me to mention the golden era of “Good Morning Idaho” in Boise!) but nothing involving so many people.

For the past two days Bill’s been broadcasting from the famous Crossed Swords monument in the center of the Green Zone.  The monument is arguably the most iconic image of Baghdad.  Started in 1986 but not completed until 1990, the monument is actually a memorial to the Iran-Iraq war, named after a famous battle, and officially called the “Swords of Qadisiyah”.

When Saddam inaugurated the memorial, he rode under the swords on a white horse.  During parades, Iraqi troops would march over a carpet of US dollars, symbolically stomping on American imperialism I suppose.  Back in 2003 I met an Iraqi policeman whose job it was to guard the monument.  He was selling pieces of this carpet for just $1 and so I too became a war-souvenir hunter, and bought up several pieces of “dollar carpet” from him.

That’s the end of today’s Iraq history lesson.  I’ll leave you with some photos of the team in action – a lot of hard working individuals making the seemingly-impossible happen in difficult circumstances.  Bill and I actually have a pretty easy job – we just stand in front of the camera and talk.  As I’m sure all the viewers have figured out, it’s the people behind the scenes that really make it all come together.

Here are some pictures from the day: