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Politics : I Will Continue to Continue, to Pretend.... -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sully- who wrote (24278)	12/1/2006 2:29:38 PM
From: Sully-	Respond to 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

To: Sully- who wrote (24278)	12/1/2006 2:45:19 PM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 35834

[O]f the two witnesses on the record one was imaginary and the other disavowed the story. Some residents actually deny anything happened.... ....Again, usually only the tip of the iceberg is visible. How many media-promulgated propaganda pieces like this are going uninvestigated? It's frightening. The Incredible Vanishing Jamil Dave Price Dean's World OK, I was going to leave this to other blogs, but Aziz's denial has me fired up now. Michelle has a nice round-up of observations on the many, many unresolved problems with the AP's story (linked below). As we said to Glenn Greenwald a while ago: if the guy is real, it would be very easy to answer all the critics by simply producing him. The AP has issued yet another response that basically amounts to "We're the AP and we say it's true, therefore it must be true." They still reference no proof anything happened other than a single molotov thrown in a mosque, damaging a rug. I'm sure it was a very nice rug and will be sorely missed by worshippers' feet, but it's not the equivalent of four firebombed mosques and six Sunnis burned alive while Iraqi police/Army stood by and watched. There are no photos of anything but one burned mosque and some graffiti (which, laughably, the AP cites as evidence), and of the two witnesses on the record one was imaginary and the other disavowed the story. Some residents actually deny anything happened. Moreover, these is no wailing funeral procession of Sunnis, no charred bodies... hell, they can't even find a burned spot in the middle of the road. Again, usually only the tip of the iceberg is visible. How many media-promulgated propaganda pieces like this are going uninvestigated? It's frightening. floppingaces.net patterico.com digg.com esr.ibiblio.org I'm sure I don't need to point out the recruiting potential that false reports of atrocities like this generate for insurgents. If the press cared about freedom (or, heaven forbid, showed some patriotism in a time of war), they'd be ignoring enemy propaganda and instead of wasting our soldiers' time making them do the press' job for them, this morning's MOI press briefing would have produced a "pro-victory" headline: <<< The third subject is, this week the strikes we made against the al-Qaeda terrorist organization in Baghdad were many and very strong in Baghdad. Before my arrival to this press conference, I was informed that one of the three who were just captured or detained is Mazer Al-Jubouri, aka the Baghdad Sniper, and his group. He admitted many things that are very important and very dangerous and our forces used this information about his network and conducted raids in the past 24 hours and detained 30 terrorists. >>> Think we'll see that story at the top of the headlines, like the "burning Sunnis" story? Or this? mnf-iraq.com Or this? mnf-iraq.com (Hey, if you do think so, send me an email. I've got a great deal for you involving a bridge in New York...) UPDATE: This just gets worse and worse for the AP. The spokesperson who issued the follow-up saying she was "satisfied with AP's reporting," Kathleen Carroll, is the same person who claimed the Qana photographs could not have been staged. This level of ineptitude is simply breathtaking. And scary. deanesmay.com michellemalkin.com patterico.com floppingaces2.blogspot.com iraqnow.blogspot.com