By the way, the NY Times reporter in Iraq sent his bosses a message doubting the story as reported by the AP.
And from HOT AIR we get: Jamilgate: NYT circles the wagons for the AP.
Here is how the Times frames the story:
It is also true that the institution conducting America’s multibillion gamble in Iraq — the military — says that this standout of atrocities never happened, while a venerable, trusted news agency has twice interviewed witnesses who said, in extensive, vivid detail, that it did.
In other words, who are you going to believe, the lying weasels who are conducting this war or the lordly, noble news people who would not lie to you ... (cough, Dan Rather, cough)... and who can't produce the "ever-ready with a quote" Lt. Hussein.
And Mary Katherine Ham has an excellent essay on Who is Capt. Jamil Hussein?
From the Iraqi Ministry of information, responding to the fake AP story:
The second subject is rumors. The ministry received in a week more than 12 cases of claims, one stating 50 killed were there, 200 kidnapped here, 30 corpses found there etc. And when we dispatched our forces and investigators to the locations, we found nothing….
This is about more than this single story:
This is not a one-time transgression or a harmless rumor. This is indicative of a pattern, which is indicative of untold numbers of inaccuracies that were never caught, rumors that were never stopped, sources that were never verified. Each one of those has had a part, however miniscule, in forming the narrative of the war in Iraq and the greater War on Terror. That narrative has shaped public opinion in Iraq, the U.S., and around the world. That public opinion may end up playing a hand in whether we win or lose in that theater
BizzyBlog has some comments of his own. Answering Mary Katherine Ham's question:
Who is Capt. Jamil Hussein? Keep asking that question. Getting the answer right matters a great deal. You’d think reporters would understand that.
Oh, they understand very well, MKH, especially the “win or lose” part. The WORMs (Worn-Out Reactionary Media, formerly known as the Mainstream Media) want the false narrative to be the first one that hits the streets, even if it takes questionable sources and/or anonymous sources to make it happen. The WORMs know that the corrective narratives, if they even occur at all, barely matter, because the vast majority of readers, listeners, and viewers will never see, hear, or be aware of them
The influence of blogs so far has been analysis rather than reporting. The Belmont Club:
The press, because of its huge institutional presence is still the primary open source mechanism for "collection". The blogosphere has increasingly become a major player in "analysis". As the blogosphere continues to expand and MSM media personalities start to blog, the division of labor between these two entitites will start to blur. Organizations like Pajamas Media, Oh My News! and 18 Doughty Street are starting to provide original reportage -- collection -- while continuing to focus on analysis. But however the labor is divided, the conceptual distinction between collection and analysis remains and we will return to the subject later.
To wind it up here is a HOT AIR video of the editor of the Boston Herald blasting the AP on Fox News.
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