More on media distortions

[fintstone]

Although the media has been presenting a little more accurate view of what is happening in Iraq (note the Fox News Special yesterday)....they are still doing their best to paint the situation to fit their agenda/politics. I expect we will begin to see more and more of the truth as we get closer to finishing the job....as the main stream media will have to start distancing themselves from their inaccurate reporting....because the truth is rapidly becoming apparent to all but the most lobotomized of the left.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
December 4, 2005

The Rest Of The Story

The relentless media emphasis on the negative in Iraq obscures the truth

By Jack Kelly

In his speech at the Naval Academy Wednesday outlining U.S. strategy in Iraq, President Bush paid tribute to Marine Cpl. Jeffrey Starr, killed in a fire fight in Ramadi on April 30. He was 22, on his third tour in Iraq.

A letter to his girlfriend was found on Cpl. Starr's laptop computer:

"If you're reading this, then I've died in Iraq," Cpl. Starr wrote. "I don't regret going. Everybody dies but a few get to do it for something as important as freedom.

"It may seem confusing why we're in Iraq; it's not to me. I'm here helping these people so they can live the way we live, not to have to worry about tyrants or vicious dictators. Others have died for my freedom; now this is my mark."

In a mammoth article in October taking note of the 2,000th U.S. death in Iraq, The New York Times mentioned Cpl. Starr and his letter, but didn't quote the passages above.

All the Times quoted from his letter was: " 'I kind of predicted this,' Cpl. Starr wrote of his own death. 'A third time just seemed like I'm pushing my chances.' "

The Times' omissions and distortions -- which are more the rule than the exception in news coverage of Iraq -- explain why so many Americans think we're losing a war we're plainly winning.

"Soldiers clearly feel that important elements are being left out of the media's overall verdict," wrote the Christian Science Monitor's Mark Sappenfield, after interviewing members of the 3rd battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, the Ohio reserve unit which, on Aug. 3, had suffered the single greatest loss of life in a roadside bombing in the entire war.

"Like many soldiers and Marines returning from Iraq, [Cpl. Stan] Mayer looks at the bleak portrayal of the war at home with perplexity -- if not annoyance," Mr. Sappenfield wrote. "It is a perception gap that has put the military and media at odds, as the troops complain that the media care only about death tolls."

The vast majority of Iraq vets share the attitudes of Cpls. Starr and Mayer. U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy, a Republican from Upper St. Clair, was treated in military hospitals after an automobile accident in Iraq last weekend.

"Every soldier I talked to said: 'Don't pull out. Do not make it so that those who have been wounded and those who have died have done so in vain,' " Rep. Murphy said.

"I regret that stories of success upon success are not reaching my family, friends and coworkers," wrote reserve Army Col. Jimmie Jaye Wells, a Texan serving in Iraq.

The relentless media emphasis on the negative also is illustrated by the differing treatment accorded pronouncements on Iraq by Rep. John Murtha, the Johnstown Democrat with a heretofore relatively low national profile, and Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., who had been his party's candidate for vice president in 2000, and a presidential candidate four years later.

When Rep. Murtha called for immediate withdrawal from Iraq, he led the network newscasts. But when Sen. Lieberman -- who had just returned from his fourth trip to Iraq -- declared Tuesday that "visible and practical" progress has been made, neither ABC nor CBS mentioned it on their evening newscasts, and neither The New York Times nor The Washington Post published a word of what he had to say. (The Wall Street Journal published an op-ed by the senator about Iraq, which the Forum section carries today.)

Some in the media go beyond omission and distortion to outright fabrication, as Reuters news service did the day after the president's speech.

"Iraqi militants attacked a U.S. base and a local government building with mortar rounds and rockets in Ramadi, west of Baghdad, on Thursday, before holding ground on several streets, residents said," Reuters reported. "They've taken control of all the main streets and other sections of Ramadi."

But Marine Capt. Jeffrey Pool, who is stationed in Ramadi, said, "As of 2 p.m. there were no signs of significant insurgent activity anywhere in the city. At 9:30 a.m., an RPG was fired at a joint U.S.-Iraqi observation post which resulted in no damages or casualties. That is all. No other attacks."

Capt. Pool said the false report of an al-Qaida offensive in Ramadi "is clearly a sign of how desperate insurgents have become." It's also a sign of how desperate Reuters is becoming, as progress in Iraq becomes more difficult to ignore.

[CRH911S]

....because the truth is rapidly becoming apparent to all but the most lobotomized of the left.

If you say so.....?

"After reports about the program circulated this week, Gen. George Casey Jr. initially protested that it (payments to Iraqi media) should not be discussed publicly because it was classified. One senior Pentagon official said, however, that Casey was told that response was inadequate." by Eric Schmitt and David S. Cloud, The New York Times

[fintstone]

Yep. Once a liberal leaks classified...the cat is out of the bag...Why try to keep it secret any longer? A skewed version is in all the Arab papers now. I'll bet that makes you just as happy as the false story about flushing a Koran at Gitmo which resulted in so many deaths.

[creaturecat]

speaking of media distortions:

Jack Kelly:

(03-19) 07:27 PST McLEAN, Va. (AP) --

USA Today said Friday that an examination of the work of journalist Jack Kelley found strong evidence that the newspaper's former star foreign correspondent had fabricated substantial portions of at least eight major stories.

"As an institution, we failed our readers by not recognizing Jack Kelley's problems. For that I apologize," publisher Craig Moon said.

After spending seven weeks closely examining Kelley's work, a team of journalists also found that Kelley had lifted quotes or other material from competing publications, lied in speeches he delivered for USA Today and conspired to mislead the investigation into his work.

An examination of his computer unearthed scripts Kelley had written to help at least three people mislead reporters attempting to verify his work, the newspaper said.

For a story in 2000, the newspaper said, Kelley used a snapshot he took of a Cuban hotel worker to authenticate a tale he made up about a woman who died fleeing Cuba by boat. The woman in the published photo never fled by boat, and a USA Today reporter located her alive this month, the newspaper said.

Kelley, 43, quit the newspaper in January after admitting he conspired with a translator to mislead editors looking into the veracity of his reporting.