CENTCOM says AP’s "Iraqi police source" isn’t Iraqi police -- Part 9 -- Continued from this post.

Video: Fox News covers Jamilgate
Allahpundit

The media wouldn’t have circled the wagons for Fox if they were in the AP’s spot so Fox won’t circle the wagons for them. An attack on one isn’t an attack on all if you’re not regarded as part of the “all.”

Here’s Hemmer interviewing Boston Herald city editor turned blogger Jules Crittenden on stringers, the burning six, and just saying no to the Associated Press.

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John Kerry had more credibility than the AP!
Bruce Kesler

John Kerry’s claims to his medals in Vietnam has more credibility than the Associated Press’ claims about its reporting of the six Sunnis purportedly set afire by Shiites.

As we used to say in the Marine Corps, that’s lower than whale sh_t, which lays on the bottom of the ocean, and you know how low that is.

Kerry’s medals were issued, however manipulatively or erroneously, by an official U.S. military process. The AP’s source for its story is not the policeman he and the AP claims he is, according to Iraqi and U.S. officials, and the AP refuses to produce him.

Kerry mustered several named boatmates to support parts of his claims, although far more fellow and chain of command witnesses saw otherwise. The AP says it has, afterwards, found three witnesses, who are unnamed and not produced. The AP “reporters” who say they spoke to the mysterious “policeman” or the “witnesses” are unnamed, and in the case of one such “AP reporter” his provenance is suspect and he has cited for other reports several other Iraqi “police” who are not.

Kerry's medals resulted from actual combat events. The AP's narrative fails to produce the immolated bodies and their relatives, the AP's narrative shrinks from 5 or 6 mosques to one, and that one's damages are actually from an earlier incident.

Kerry’s claims, once exposed as either outright lies or gross exaggerations, engaged the major media in ignoring the contrary evidence, but in a very few cases – such as the imaginary trip to Cambodia – where the evidence was incontrovertible, at least that was admitted by the major media. The AP, and its sisters at the New York Times and elsewhere, with even more personal stake in the matter of their own veracity, have not even admitted the above but just baldly stand by their assertions. ...

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Wretchard at The Belmont Club writes:

The "Captain Jamil Hussein" problem, an incident in which the Associated Press appears to have used a fake policeman as a source for an extended period of time, raises the generic problem of how to verify news stories generated by a field correspondent. The problem is not confined to the MSM. Bloggers are increasingly bombarded with tips and reports from individuals they may have corresponded with, but whom they have never met, and whose information may be questionable. There are great opportunities under those circumstances for pranksters and malevolent persons to spread disinformation. Although the problem is most marked in the case of the mainstream media (MSM) it is not confined to them. The problem of acquiring accurate intelligence, even in the face of active disinformation, is a challenge to everyone. Hence, the "Captain Jamil Hussein" problem is typical of a class of challenges probably best understood in the context of a simplified intelligence cycle: that of collection-analysis-dissemination.

The press, because of its huge institutional presence is still the primary open source mechanism for "collection". The blogosphere has increasingly become a major player in "analysis". As the blogosphere continues to expand and MSM media personalities start to blog, the division of labor between these two entitites will start to blur. Organizations like Pajamas Media, Oh My News! and 18 Doughty Street are starting to provide original reportage -- collection -- while continuing to focus on analysis. But however the labor is divided, the conceptual distinction between collection and analysis remains and we will return to the subject later.

Dissemination, that is, the way particular stories are chosen from among the many thousands of daily events and processed between Internet centers of consciousness until they are finally served up to their relevant audiences -- is of crucial importance too. ...

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How to Lose a War!
By Robert Farrow

Do not fear the enemy, for your enemy can only take your life. It is far better that you fear the media, for they will steal your HONOR. That awful power, the public opinion of a nation, is created in America by a horde of ignorant, self-complacent simpletons who failed at ditching and shoemaking and fetched up in journalism on their way to the poorhouse. -Mark Twain

“I hate newspapermen. They come into camp and pick up their camp rumors and print them as facts. I regard them as spies, which, in truth, they are. - General William Sherman

Let’s set the wayback machine and pretend, shall we. Let’s pretend today’s media had been around in WWII and covered the attack on Pearl Harbor. ( …and lets pretend TV sets were common in 1941. ) So close your eyes and imagine a fuzzy black and white program as the announcer says…..

Announcer, “Thousands of American soldiers die in attack on our Pacific Naval Base. ”

A few seconds of the Pearl Harbor footage. Announcer states “the whole American defenses are in shambles as our fleet is at the bottom of Pearl harbor. The whole coastline is open to invasion.”

Next, the Japanese Admiral Yamamoto discussing how the attack on Pearl Harbor was necessary because it would protect Japanese access to oil and other raw materials needed for the Empire.

..switch to footage of American ships on fire, emphasizing this is a “major disaster for our forces.”

….more footage of dead Americans, and the announcer suggesting that war “was avoidable, and Roosevelt forced Japan’s hand.”

….Prime Minister Tojo discussed how the the attack was brought by American Agression and that “Greater East–Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere will benefit all Asians and stop abuses by western countries.”

Finally…..an image of a crying mother whose son died in the attack, which fades into an the American flag (to pretend they are patriotic,) with the announcer suggesting if this is really worth the price.

Sound Silly? How is this different then how the media portrays the war now?? ...

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Part 9 of a series. Part 10.