CENTCOM says AP’s "Iraqi police source" isn’t Iraqi police -- Part 18 -- Continued from this post.

IraqSlogger: Something New or Just More of the Same?
Dread Pundit Bluto

Like David Duchovny's Agent Fox of "The X-Files," I want to believe.

I want to believe that the new all-Iraq news site "IraqSlogger" will be, as they claim, "non-political." In my book, "non-political" would mean that, unlike the mainstream media, the new website would feature reports that simply tell what's going on, without an anti-Bush, anti-conservative, anti-Republican, anti-military, anti-American, anti-Western agenda. IraqSlogger's definition of non-political may be narrower than mine.

IraqSlogger's CEO is Eason Jordan, who resigned his position last year as CNN's chief news executive after getting caught accusing US troops of deliberately targeting journalists. Earlier, Jordan had admitted to suppressing news from CNN's Baghdad bureau in order to keep Saddam Hussein from closing it. This does not give me a high degree of confidence that the new website will be a paragon of honest, unbiased journalism.

The history of IraqSlogger co-founder Robert Young Pelton (apparently, the "RYP" who has been commenting about IraqSlogger at various blogs) isn't confidence-inspiring, either. In 2002 he told Salon that al Qaeda is a "bogeyman," and that the 9/11 terrorists were really a "Mickey Mouse operation."

And he also made this incredible statement: ...

What's so funny about going to Iraq?
Plus: More questions for AP
Michelle Malkin

Eason Jordan has further comment on his invitation and my acceptance:

Some of you have asked what's up with IraqSlogger's invitation to send Michelle Malkin to Iraq. It was a serious invitation, she accepted it, she asked if I'd also pay for her to take along Curt of the Flopping Aces blog, I said yes, and now we're working to arrange the trip. This is an enormously complicated journey to arrange, with safety and security being paramount concerns. This is serious stuff, and I'm taking the conversation with Michelle offline until we have a meaningful advance in the story to share with you.

There are people on both sides of the blogosphere who think this is some kind of joke. Others are using it as yet another opportunity to hurl slime, hate, and stupidity. You want to see me shot in the face or dead. Ha, ha, ha.

I know that neither Curt nor my co-workers nor I--nor our families--is taking this lightly. There's nothing funny about this undertaking. When I have more I can tell you, I'll let you know.

In the meantime, you'll recall that two days ago, I noted Eric Boehlert's blogger-bashing screed about the AP six burning Sunnis/Jamil Hussein controversy, which was posted on left-wing Media Matters.

Yesterday, there was a very compelling post on Media Matters taking Boehlert to task. (Hat tip: See-dubya) The author is Robert Bateman, the war historian whose op-ed on his experience with the AP attack machine I linked last week. Here's what he has to say (excerpt is lengthy, but must-read):

Eric B is wrong, in my opinion, because the controversy involved in this story of AP reporting is not, after all, a story about the political "Right" (and Military) versus "Left", but in reality a simple one of sourcing. In the original AP story, remember, FOUR mosques were attacked, and firebombed and/or blown up, and six, or perhaps twelve, Sunni worshippers burned to death.  ...

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Part 18 of a series. Part 19