December 9th, 2006
No Gun Ri - a Fantasy Fit for the Associated Press
By CottShop
Millions of Americans get their view of Iraq from reports done by what are supposed to be journalists, but rather turn out to be agendists. We’re seeing more and more name brand media getting caught in flat out lies and misrepresentation lately, and at the forefront is the ‘news agency’ known as the Associated Press.
ROBERT BATEMAN, writing for the New York Post, outlines how he confronted the Associated Press about the fact that a supposed war hero had given them key inside information regarding No Gun Ri- a scene of an alleged massacre committed by our troops in South Korea.
Robert describes how the AP printed a fantasy story by Edward Daily, who claimed to be a machine-gunner that was personally ordered to kill innocent civilians at close range in No Gun Ri.
Daily went on to describe to the Associate Press how he had received Purple Hearts, and the distinguished Cross just three days after the No Gun Ri incident.
There was only one problem. Edward Daily was no machine-gunner. He was in fact, an enlisted mechanic in a different unit than the one involved in No Gun Ri, and was in fact nowhere near the scene on the day that it happened. His entire account and credentials were completely made up.
Robert Bateman contacted the Associated Press to question them on these facts, and the AP apparently refused to acknowledge any wrong-doing. Not only did they refuse to admit the story was false, but they tried to ruin Bateman’s career by going to his boss with allegations of their own against Bateman. When that didn’t work, they tried strongarm Bateman’s publisher into preventing his book from going to market.
Some may be thinking at this point, ’so what? The associated press made a mistake.’ This was no mistake. This was a deliberate attempt to portray our military as baby-killing maniacs. When they were made aware of the fact that Edward Daily was not who he claimed to be, instead of writing a retraction and apology to our soldiers for printing lies, they steadfastly refused to apologize for their mistake.
The irresponsibility that the Associated Press displayed speaks volumes about their integrity as respected journalist. It was a blatantly irresponsible report that directly endangered our troops in South Korea, and they didn’t care. The damage in the minds of the Koreans and the American public had already been done.
Mark Steyn rightfully accused the Associated press of being “semi-treasonous” and being a “disgraceful organization” that is “colluding with the enemy and demoralizing America on the homefront.”
I absolutely agree with Mark’s statements. The Associated Press’ vitriol against the GOP knows no bounds- even resorting to printing lies, and bull-headedly refusing to print retractions when they are called on their lies.
Robert Bateman calls attention to the fact that the Associated press is at it again- printing ‘exclusive’ information gathered from a “Police Captain Jamil Hussein” for more than a year now. All the reports coming in from this supposed Police Captain are horrendous in nature- talking about massacres, butcherings, the worst explosions that oddly can never be backed up by credible sources, etc etc etc.
Both the Iraqi government and the U.S Army can find no evidence of a Police Captain Jamil Hussein, nor have they ever come across anyone who has ever met with this figure.
Captain Jamil was the ’source’ for the Associated Press’ stories that described 6 Sunni Worshippers who were allegedly burned alive and 4 mosques that were allegedly burned over the Thanksgiving weekend in Iraq.
Were the reports accurate? Nope- one Mosque apparently did suffer some minor smoke and scorching from after molotov cocktail was thrown on it, but no, 4 Mosques did not burn and there is absolutely no evidence that six Sunni civilians were burned to death as the ever elusive Captain Jamil reported. No evidence of RPG rockets fired at Mosque doors such as the Associated Press described. One of the supposed anonymous eyewitnesses to the accounts has since recanted his story.
As Robert points out, the Associated Press refused to print a retraction, and has insisted all along that despite the fact that there is no evidence of a Captain Jamil, that Captain Jamil is still a spokesman for the country of Iraq.
The news source that millions of people trust each and every day has shown a complete disregard for journalistic integrity, even when called to the carpet to answer for their lies.
After learning about Reuters faking ‘news’ photos, and printing known false stories about supposed victims of the war, who incidently were not as dead as they appeared in the fake photos, and after learning about how terrorists were orchestrating scenes for the benefit of Associated Press ‘journalists’, which amazingly later turned out to be false, is it any wonder that people see through their contrived ‘news reporting’ and question their integrity?
The Associated Press’ Anti-GOP agenda is as plain as the nose on your face, yet incredibly, millions of people each day still turn to them as a ‘trusted’ source for fair and balanced reporting, little knowing, or little caring, that the Associated Press has a long history of printing false stories to advance enemy propaganda.
Treasonous? You betcha. Remember folks, the Associated Press, the ones who have tried to repeatedly undermine the war on terror, are the same people who are lauding the Iraq Study Group. Doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out why. (Photo by MorgueFile.com) www.sacredscoop.com
Wonder if and when the media are going to get back to delivering real events and facts to the public - or if they have bitten into the idea of the driving force for world power by their words alone.
