The Associated Press and Their Committment to Honesty
Ok, so that title is over the top, I know. It was just to catch your eye. Obviously the Associated Press is a little short in the credibility department taking six weeks to get any traction on the Jamil Hussein story. If you recall there was a report by the AP that sectarian violence in the town of Hurriyah near Bahgdad had destroyed 4 mosques and that 6 Sunni’s were burned alive. All in one night. Despite the fact that Iraq Army patrols found only some slight damage in one mosque. And no bodies. No sources with any reliability nor any eyewitnesses to the burning Sunnis came forward. The absolutely best summary of the whole issue is by Karl at Protein Wisdom:
A source for over 60 Associated Press stories from Baghdad reportedly is an Iraqi policeman (according to an Iraqi official) and may face arrest for speaking to the AP. Ironically, it is unlikely that anything will happen to the man, so long as the AP continues to refuse to identify him (which makes me less concerned about the heavy-handed MoI tactics here). The AP describes him as the source for a story “about the burning and shooting of six people during a sectarian attack at a Sunni mosque.” But that description leaves out a few salient facts.
In the original AP story, Hussein claimed that militiamen “burned and blew up four mosques and torched several homes” in Hurriyah. The Multi-Nation Corps stated that an Iraqi Army patrol found only one mosque had been burned. The AP’s follow-up story refers to a single mosque; Capt. Hussein’s claim of four mosques, afaik, has never been repeated, let alone substantiated. “Armed Liberal” Marc Danziger had two equally anonymous sources (likely journos with al Sabah) tell him that “at least two of the mosques in question are just fine.”
The AP’s other source—a Sunni elder—recanted after being visited by a representative of the defense minister.
So the only “credible” source that was available recanted. The rest is just creativity by the AP and its notoriously unreliable “stringer source” network. It’s good to know that the AP supports the efforts of the White House and the danger that our military is facing every day - by slanting, stretching, and outright lying for the sensational headlines and bogus stories. Finally, Jamil Hussein has been found. There is giddy excitement on the left wing blogs that the AP has been vindicated - ignoring the point of the story completely. Where are the 6 burned-to-death Sunni’s? Where are the four destroyed mosques?
Michelle Malkin has a good write up to this story and is also on her way to an embed with the troops in Iraq. She intends to get more realistic feedback than we get from the AP - which by Malkin standards will be 100 times better than the AP. Both Protein Wisdom’s link and Michell Malkin are good sources for what the AP scandal is all about.
