| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"Fred Stone" |
| Date: |
01 Dec 2007 06:05:59 PM |
| Object: |
More of that great MSM fact-checking |
http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/2007/11/iraqi_journalists_fam
ily_not_d.asp
Iraqi Journalist's Family Not Dead
kawwaz+family.jpg
Reports of the demise of the Kawwaz family were premature.
The Western media was abuzz over the past few days over an Iraqi
journalist’s accusations that his extended family of in Baghdad was
executed by a death squad. “Dia al-Kawwaz, editor of Internet website
Shabeqat Akhbar al-Iraq (Network of Iraqi News), said militiamen sprayed
his relatives with bullets after storming into his house on Sunday,” AFP
reported earlier this week. Various international human rights and
journalist organizations jumped to Kawwaz’s defense. But the Iraqi
government denied the claims, and stated it has spoken to members of the
local police and even the family, all eleven of whom denied the
accusations.
Today, Gateway Pundit provided visual evidence that the family was indeed
alive. Kawwaz’s family appeared on Iraqi television, smiling and waving.
The international media is quick to jump at claims such as this, without
providing a critical eye on the sources. The media should have looked at
who was behind this. AFP has it right in their report:
Several Iraqi officials, including Sunni MPs Saleh al-Mutlaq and
Hussein al-Falluji, attended the service along with hardline cleric
Hareth al-Dari, the head of Iraq's Sunni Muslim Scholars Association who
lives in Amman.
Hareth al-Dari and the Association of Muslim Scholars openly support the
insurgency and covertly support al Qaeda. Saleh al-Mutlaq is notorious
for his support of the insurgency, and U.S. forces have raided his
offices in the past. Mutlaq purportedly approached the CIA to mount a
coup against the Iraqi government earlier this year.
In my first hand experience, the media is far to willing to print stories
based on bad sources. When I was embedded with the Canadian Army in
Kandahar in June of 2006, a Taliban stringer fed a wire service the false
news that two Canadian soldiers had been kidnapped. The Canadian
reporters, with the exception of two, were all too eager to go to press.
The leak was timed to hit Canada just in time for the evening news.
Two other reporters and I attempted to dissuade the reporters from going
to press, stating that this was highly likely a Taliban information
operation, and the army would do a head count and know in an hour or two.
The reporters printed due to pressure form their editors, and hours later
the story was confirmed as false.
Update: Dia al-Kawwaz recants. Blames it all on the Maliki government.
[lots of links at the cite]
--
Fred Stone
aa# 1369
Liberal: a power worshipper without power. - George Orwell
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