Media corruption in Iraq
There is much more along with Wretchard's analysis. There are other aspects of the striger system that appear to be corrupt. One is the calls to hospitals for casualty figures. The results are almost always exagerated and misleading. Casualties are always described as civilians, even though the enemy camoflages himself as a civilian.Michelle Malkin says:
One member of the Pulitzer-winning AP team was AP stringer Bilal Hussein. ... According to my tipster, Hussein was captured earlier today by American forces in a building in Ramadi, Iraq, with a cache of weapons. I am still awaiting a response from the DOD's Combined Press Information Center and a Public Affairs Officer in Ramadi.
Mr. Hussein has apparently been associated with three questionable photographs discussed in a recent National Journal article by Neil Munro; a possible staged funeral and two pictures featuring a segment of track from a US armored vehicle used as a prop in possibly posed battle scenes. One of the most interesting pictures taken by Bilal Hussein is of the body of Italian hostage Salvatore Santoro. Al Jazeera explains how Santoro was killed and how his picture came to be taken....
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Bill Roggio has a major post on an insurgent attack on Ramadi that possibly never was.
Last weekend, several news sources, including the Associated Press and CNN, reported a major insurgent attack on the provincial government headquarters in the heart of Ramadi. ... The purported incident in Ramadi never made the press releases at either Multinational Forces-Iraq or CENTCOM. The Associated Press has a reporter (Todd Pitman) embedded with the Marines of the 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment. Mr. Pitman's blog is called AP Blog From Ramadi, Iraq, and the site has not been updated since April 7th. An inquiry to Captain Alfred Smith, the Public Affairs Officer from the 2/28th Brigade Combat Team, which runs Ramadi, produced the following reply; "There was some action , a little more active than the norm but just another day for us." This Week in Iraq, a Coalition bulletin, has a brief description of a fight in Ramadi but nothing like the media accounts.
A reader in Holland notes some curiosities between a video from last weekend's purported Ramadi attack taken on April 8th and a photograph taken in Ramadi on March 14th. Study the video, then the photo, and you will see both of these images were taken at the exact same street corner in Ramadi, and shot from an identical angle. Note the awning, the poles, the two 'booths', even the stance of the 'insurgents' and the direction which they are firing. This is without a doubt the same street corner in Ramadi. The video and photo are obviously taken at two different points in time (note the umbrella in the video, as well as the different dress of the insurgents). (You'll have to watch the video to get the full effect as I was unable to capture a screen shot for a photo comparison.)
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The enemy believes that the biggest battlespace in this war is in the media. How many of his people are working for US media entities in Iraq?
The Anchoress also comments.
...There is certainly reason to doubt their honesty.
The harm and destruction being wrought upon this nation and others by people who have moved far beyond their commission to simply supply the facts of any given story is becoming incalculable - politically, socially, societally, militarily. Our press is out of control, or - more correctly - under the control of something malicious. Without a free and honest press, we are in trouble. And we are without a free and honest press, these days.
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