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July 03, 2007
Selective Outrage
The Associated Press and Reuters recently retracted a story they ran about a massacre near Baghdad. The story was based on anonymous sources and ran in a number of news outlets. The story was retracted because ultimately, it could not be confirmed.
The media had run rumors as news, and buried the retractions. Essentially, lies became news.
Contrast that with how the media has treated this story, about the massacre of a village near Baqubah. Al-Qaeda members went into the village and systematically murdered everyone there, including women and children. Even the livestock were killed. Content warning on the link - Michael Yon has pictures from the village and he's brutally honest in his narrative. This is strong stuff.
The media has ignored this story. Here's what Yon has to say.
In fairness, several large outlets did publish it online: National Review Online and Fox News were both quick to place the story prominently on their websites. A few others also published excerpts. It was even briefly up on the Drudge Report. On the blog front, Instapundit, Hugh Hewitt, Blackfive, Andrew Sullivan, Captain’s Quarters and many others picked it up.Yon has sources, pictures and corroboration for his story. There are no anonymous liars spreading lies here. Yet the media seems unwilling to print this. Yon has offered media outlets free use of his story for a month in hopes that the word will get out about the barbarity of those we're fighting in Iraq.But for those publications who actually had people embedded in Baqubah when the story first broke and still failed to cover it, their malaise is inexplicable. I do not know why all failed to report the murders and booby-trapped village: apparently no reporters bothered to go out there, even though it’s only about 3.5 miles from this base. Any one of the reporters currently in Baqubah could still go to these coordinates and follow his or her nose and find the gravesites.
I wonder if any news organizations will "take the bait" and tell the truth.
Posted by slublog at July 3, 2007 07:20 PM
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