2008 Woodie Awards
Journalist shares film account of Iraqi experience
By: Tiffany Johnson
Issue date: 3/9/06 Section: News
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Mike Shiley, freelance journalist and photographer, took group of people from Webster University into the war zones of Iraq, March 2, with his film, "Inside Iraq: The Untold Story."
Shay Malone, Multicultural Center and International Student Affairs programs coordinator, said she booked Shiley because she said the film showed both sides of the Iraq War.
Shiley claims his film is an unbiased look at the people of Iraq and the war that has affected their lives. The first half of the film is a narrated portion about the lives of the Iraqi people, including the Shiites, Sunnis and Kurdish people. The second half of the film shows his time with an army base and tank unit.
The film helped Shiley become a freelance reporter for several news stations around the country, but his journey started with his local ABC news station in Oregon. Shiley said he called ABC news and asked them if he could be a war reporter for them.
"They laughed at me and hung up the phone a few times," Shiley said.
That didn't stop Shiley and he continued to call until he convinced ABC news that he was serious. Shiley said he went to Kinko's and created his own press pass that allowed him to get into Iraq and onto the military base.
"It was more ambition that fraud," Shiley said of the press pass.
Shiley said he asked ABC news if he could go make his own press pass, because he was sure they wouldn't give him one. ABC news agreed that they wouldn't give him one, but said it was OK if he made his own.
"I just went to their Web site, clicked and drug some things around and created my own press pass with the ABC logo. I condensed a four-year journalism degree into a $1.95 piece of paper from Kinko's," Shiley said after ABC news approved.
In the film, Shiley showed illegal Iraqi gun and porno markets, starving children who risked their lives for food, insurgents, military personnel and men who dug up and disarmed land mines for $10 a day.
Shay Malone, Multicultural Center and International Student Affairs programs coordinator, said she booked Shiley because she said the film showed both sides of the Iraq War.
Shiley claims his film is an unbiased look at the people of Iraq and the war that has affected their lives. The first half of the film is a narrated portion about the lives of the Iraqi people, including the Shiites, Sunnis and Kurdish people. The second half of the film shows his time with an army base and tank unit.
The film helped Shiley become a freelance reporter for several news stations around the country, but his journey started with his local ABC news station in Oregon. Shiley said he called ABC news and asked them if he could be a war reporter for them.
"They laughed at me and hung up the phone a few times," Shiley said.
That didn't stop Shiley and he continued to call until he convinced ABC news that he was serious. Shiley said he went to Kinko's and created his own press pass that allowed him to get into Iraq and onto the military base.
"It was more ambition that fraud," Shiley said of the press pass.
Shiley said he asked ABC news if he could go make his own press pass, because he was sure they wouldn't give him one. ABC news agreed that they wouldn't give him one, but said it was OK if he made his own.
"I just went to their Web site, clicked and drug some things around and created my own press pass with the ABC logo. I condensed a four-year journalism degree into a $1.95 piece of paper from Kinko's," Shiley said after ABC news approved.
In the film, Shiley showed illegal Iraqi gun and porno markets, starving children who risked their lives for food, insurgents, military personnel and men who dug up and disarmed land mines for $10 a day.