Is the L.A. Times reporting unconfirmed enemy propaganda from an Iraqi stringer with ties to the insurgency? Or is the paper simply misreporting the facts, and failing to seek out and report the military’s side of the story?
You be the judge.
(h/t SwampWoman)
The [L.A. Times article] is an example of why you simply cannot believe most media reports coming out of Iraq. The LA Time[s] reporter, Solomon Moore, is not in Ramadi. He relies on an Iraqi stringer here who has ties to insurgents. In this article, Moore repeats almost verbatim, insurgent propaganda we have intercepted. The fighting in question occurred in my battle space within Ramadi and I was personally and intimately involved.
The soldier then disputed certain assertions made in the L.A. Times article. The soldier said that there had been no airstrike, and that only a few insurgents had been killed, by small-arms fire and tank fire. The solder concluded the e-mail with a slap at the L.A. Times:
Every target engaged was well within what our restrictive rules of engagement authorize. I am disgusted by the editorial slant of this article, by what passes from journalistic integrity at the LA Times, and by their complicity with our mortal enemies. My Soldiers fight with great precision and skill on a very difficult urban battlefield. The LA Times dishonors them and give aid and comfort to my enemies.
Assuming this alleged e-mail from a Ramadi soldier was genuine and accurate, it made an explosive allegation: that the L.A. Times is relying on a stringer with ties to the insurgency, and is repeating enemy propaganda.
Tags: verbatim | stringer | repeats | intercepted | complicity | WITNESSES | ties | report | relies | Propaganda | KILLS | INSURGENT | failing | facts | engaged | E-MAIL | BATTLEFIELD | article | alleged | Airstrike | times | Ramadi | moore | IRAQI | Iraq | getting
link to Patterico’s Pontifications
Filed under: iraq, News and politics | Tagged: 'War on Terrorism', Al Qaeda, Bloggers, iraq, News and politics |














Simply misreporting the facts? Isn’t that a lot like writing fiction but with a steady paycheck? There aren’t a lot of fields that let you slide with that sort of careless treatment of facts. Perhaps I should look into it. I really like the idea of getting paid regardless of how egregiously I screw up.
Perhaps everybody should do this sort of reporting. The latest news on Toyota’s new hybrid vehicles should be obtained soley from a spokesperson for GM SUVs. Information on a hemorrhoidectomy should be obtained from a chiropractor. Information on how to conduct a war should be obtained from peace activists, and on global warming from failed politicians and Hollywood actors instead of climatologists….oh, wait.
you’ve just made the reverse chickenhawk argument. 😆
And on a sad(der) note, 111-year-old WWI veteran dies in Florida.
Incompetence annoys me.
He was the last one?
I suppose I get annoyed easily. Judges that protect pedophiles instead of children annoy me. “Environmentalists” that refuse to allow anything from thinning underbrush to controlled burns in forests that then experience complete devastation when the inevitable fire occurs annoy me. People that blithely decide that “business” should pay more taxes without ever having been in business and with no idea whatsoever of the market and costs involved to stay competitive annoy me.
According to the news story, there are “fewer than 25” WWI veterans left alive. Whether that means 24, or 5, or 17 left I do not know. JEB gave him a medal (that he had not received) from WWI in person @ 2 weeks ago.
Got my new header photo posted. Heh
ROFL. Now, I can see that viewpoint.
And, thanks for the boogie ride, Anita O’Day.
More things that annoy me in case anybody wants to keep track.
Another thing that Jimmy Carter royally uh, messed up. Damn, he’s annoying.
Oh, the link to number 10 was over at GCP, posted by Techno-Barbarian on FOAD Friday.
High-spirited “French” “soccer fans” that attack a fan of the Tel Aviv team 150 to 1 annoy me. The French plain clothes officer that shot and killed 1 attacker and wounded another is to be congratulated but will probably be put on trial for being insensitive.
A woman minding her own business and being assaulted in London annoys me, too.
Are fathers no longer necessary for raising a family? SwampMan played an active role in parenting (once they were housebroken).