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Politics : I Will Continue to Continue, to Pretend....
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To: Sully- who wrote (24278)12/1/2006 2:29:38 PM
From: Sully-   of 35834
 
More on this journalistic malpractice by the AP from wretchard of The Belmont Club:

...the press conference at which the Ministry of the Interior declared, publicly and before the AP that "Captain Jamil Hussein" was not in fact a police officer in their service. The email sent to Michelle Malkin categorically declares that "Captain Jamil Hussein" is not a police officer, whatever else he may be. One commenter at Blackfive, faced with this development, responds caustically by saying "Yes. If you want the real news in Iraq, one must go to the official spokesmen of the Ministry of the Interior to get it. This would be hilarious, if not so tragic."

But that misses the point.

Neither the AP nor any other news agency is being asked to rely on the official spokesman of the Ministry of the Interior. But AP may not make up an "official spokesman of the Ministry of the Interior" to suit their taste. "Captain Jamil Hussein" was presented as a credible AP source precisely because he was "official", that is a police officer, which he apparently is not. And it is improper for the AP to invent a man and then name him as a source. No one is obliged to go solely to the AP for "the real news in Iraq"; but whatever one thinks of the AP, no one should be permitted to invent fictitious AP reporters or bureau chiefs and file stories in the wires under their invented names. The issue isn't freedom of speech, it's fraud.

And that's why the story by Steven R. Hurst is so disturbing. It reduces the possibility that "Captain Jamil Hussein" may simply be a unintentional mistake caused by the pressure of deadlines and inadequate fact-checking by harassed staff. The AP story categorically declares that it has double-checked the existence of "Captain Jamil Hussein", even sent reporters to see him the flesh and that his full name is Jamil Gholaiem Hussein. And now it turns out that he is not on the roll of cops. Of the remaining alternatives none are pretty. The Press is the intelligence service of the civilian world. Like any other intelligence organization, open or clandestine, they benefit from oversight. Hard questions were asked by Flopping Aces which now apparently have answers. Unless the AP can produce "Captain Jamil Hussein", it should take its lumps in good part and clean up its act.

fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com
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