CENTCOM says AP’s "Iraqi police source" isn’t Iraqi police -- Part 14 -- Continued from this post.

Perception or Deception?
Confederate Yankee

According to AP Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll, Iraqi Police Captain Jamil Hussein is a well-known source that they have had a relationship with for two years.

According to Curt at Flopping Aces, Hussein was cited in Associated Press reports by name 61 times between April 24th and November 26th of this year. No other news organization other than the Associated Press seems to have evern been in contact with Jamil Hussein. It is not known if Hussein may have been cited as an anonymous source, if at all, in addition to the 61 times he was cited as an official source by AP. ...

In just eight months, Iraqi Police Captain Jamil Hussein was cited as a source in stories by 17 named AP reporters, and also appeared in several stories where no byline was given. To the best we can determine, he has never been cited by another news organization, at any time.

Since his authenticity was thrown in doubt, the fabled Iraqi Police Captain has completely disappeared from AP reporting, except for the AP's denials that he is the fraud that the Iraqi interior ministry says he is. The captain, if he is real, would have likely come forward by now to clear his name. He has not.

At the current level of controversy, it might be prudent for these 17 Associated Press reporters, AP international editor John Daniszewski, and AP Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll to each go on the record and establish the details, dates and locations of their relationship with alleged Iraqi Police Captain Jamil Hussein that they have so vigorously defended.

Daniszewski and Carroll should also explain why, when there is so much suspicion that the Associated Press has been duped by a series of false witnesses tied to a flawed stringer-based news gathering methodology, that the AP promoted two of the reporters involved in this controversy.

Kim Gamel, who issued stories using Hussein as a source on June 1, June 5 and twice on June 6, has now been promoted to the newly-created position of Baghdad News Editor.

Patrick Quinn, who wrote a story using Hussein as a source on May 30, has been promoted to the newly-created position of Assistant Chief of Middle East News.

In most any line of work, discovering that two actors were promoted after it was revealed they were in some way involved in a scandal, would create a scandal of its own. Many people might assume that their superiors might be trying to buy their silence. That suspicion would only grow if those people were promoted to positions that didn't previously exist. ...

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Could It Be, AP?
Tom B.

Michael Fumento reports from Ramadi (HT Instapundit):

….. now the WashPost has printed another article on the city, this time an upbeat one. What gives? You guessed it.The second one was reported from Ramadi. Case closed, thank you very much. Unfortunately, it’s little solace knowing how few journalists ever leave their safe little hovels in Baghdad hotels or Washington, D.C.

Kaus doesn’t think “upbeat” accurately describes the WaPo article, which is actually an AP dispatch by Will Weissert. I agree; I’d call it “even-handed.”

But there’s a larger point, which is that an actual named AP reporter has reported from something other than a “safe little hovel,” and from Ramadi no less.

Why? I have to wonder if AP is responding to the current controversy, by doing things it would probably never admit to doing, and certainly would never attribute to having been done because of outside influence. Specifically:

• Does this recent report indicate that AP might begin putting more real named reporters onsite in response to the errors found in previous stories, and the general dubiousness of their “mystery sources”? (Yeah, it could be a temporary measure until the pesky bloggers pipe down.)

• Is AP ..

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Two good ones in a row from Curt:

Journalism 101

Michael Fumento, a writer for many different MSM outfits, has a post on his blog that notices a slight change in reporting from Iraq recently:

In a Nov. 29 blog, "Will the real Ramadi please stand up?" I observed that three articles on conditions in Ramadi and al Anbar Province had appeared within a week of each other giving entirely different points of view. Mine and one in the Times of London said we're winning the war in Ramadi; a Washington Post A1 story co-authored by "Fiasco" author Thomas Ricks claimed exactly the opposite. The difference, I said, could be explained simply. I and the Times writer reported from Ramadi. Ricks and his co-author have not only never been to Ramadi, they wrote their piece from Washington. Well now the WashPost has printed another article on the city, this time an upbeat one. What gives? You guessed it.The second one was reported from Ramadi. Case closed, thank you very much. Unfortunately, it's little solace knowing how few journalists ever leave their safe little hovels in Baghdad hotels or Washington, D.C.

Amazing isn't it?  A reporter actually visiting the locations, maybe staying there a few days getting to know the scene, will write a totally different story of that area.  What we have now is reporters who rarely leave the safety of their rooms while listening to some fantasies spun by those with an obvious agenda.

The WaPo article Michael points us to is indeed quite different.  While the writer, Will Weissert, gives the usual negative news at some points, what is different about this article is that he writes some very positive things also:

RAMADI, Iraq -- The soldiers swallow diet pills and slurp can after can of Red Bull, fighting to stay awake as they peer from armored Humvees into the pre-dawn darkness. Twangy country music pours from some vehicle sound systems, angry rap from others.

Every few minutes, an explosion is heard, but it's only the Marines blowing down doors as they storm from house to house, searching for sniper rifles, bomb-making materials and suspected insurgents.

"Operation Squeeze Play" is proving easier than expected considering this 20-block section of southeastern Ramadi _ known as "Second Officer's District" because it's home to so many former leaders of Saddam Hussein's army _ was not so long ago a no-go zone for U.S. troops.

Tom from BizzyBlog wonders why the AP would now send a real live reporter out into the field all of a sudden:

[...]

All interesting points and questions but we all know, deep down, that the MSM will not change its modus operandi.  Case in point,  ...

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The Same Ole' AP

An hour ago I posted about the AP running with a story that was slightly positive in tone about Iraq and this was due to the writer actually being in the town he was reporting on.  But now Confederate Yankee has discovered that two of the writers who have used Jamil Hussein as a source for reports have now been promoted within the AP:

[...]

Isn't that special.  One of those guilty of using a fraud as a source has now been promoted to editor in Iraq.

Think the MSM is changing? ...

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AP- press agents for the terrorists
"Uncle Jimbo" Hanson

The Associated Press would love it if all those pesky bloggers would quit throwing their BS flags on their BS reporting. We'll stop when they stop stamping steaming piles of dung with an AP seal of approval and calling it news. This is the organization brazen enough to complain that one of their Pulitzer prize-winning photogs was being held by the US, Censorship they cry! The fact that this gentleman, Bilal Hussein, was captured in a raid that scarfed up two terrorist bomb-makers and the trusted AP photog had explosive residue all over him is unimportant when you are making (up) the news. ...

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Part 14 of a series. Part 15