Media Notes

They Found the Jamil Hussein. So What?

Not all that long ago I noted how Curt at Flopping Aces was questioning the reality of certain Al-Pazeera sources

Well a Jamil Hussein has been produced. Not just any Jamil Hussein but a Capt. Jamil Hussein working in the Al-Pazeera noted police station. That took some time. Sure, Capt. Jamil Hussein may exist but how about the stories he was feeding Al-Pazeera? Does my existance mean if I report stories about green spotted purple unicorns feeding on road salt the story is true? Of course not. The MSM, Al-Pazeera included has been all to willing to swallow enemy propaganda while being skeptical of the news from our armed forces.

A Lonely John Kerry?

Another story this time raising questions about the blogosphere is the Lonely John Kerry story. A picture came from Iraq showing John Kerry alone at a table having some breakfast. The reporting on the story was John Kerry being spurned. The leftoid blogosphere came up with all sorts of fantastic conspiracy theories explaining it away. However, in the end it came down to John Kerry wanting some private & quiet time to talk with reporters.

I was skeptical of that story. It did not seem right a former presidential candidate (even as a lame one as John Kerry) would be spurned by our troops. Certainly he did not go to a HQ too far down the chain of command where the number of his supporters (even in the Military, probably at the brigade to division level there would have been enough JK supporters to stage) was next to zero.

Still given his history and his recent commentary (and maybe it was a botched joke, but it was interpreted properly by the way it came out, he directly insulted the soldiers. It was no misinterpretation on the listeners part) it was not extremely unreasonable to bite on the photo and the explanation initially supplied.

A Correction?

Many in the blogosphere have pointed out an outright misrepresntation of a story put out by the New York Times. To sum up the story as presented by the NYT a woman in El Salvador had an abortion and was arrested and sentenced to jail for a long time (w/o running down the details I want to say the sentence was 30 years). However, the record shows this was not an abortion (at least not in the commonly held view) but a live birth followed by a strangulation – murder.

Well National Review's Byron York passes on the following from the New York Times:

The three-judge panel that received the case from Judge Sanabria concluded that the second report was more credible than the first, and the panel convicted Ms. Climaco of aggravated homicide.

The Times should have obtained the text of the ruling of the three-judge panel before the article was published, but did not vigorously pursue the document until details of the ruling were brought to the attention of editors in late November.

A picture caption with the article also misstated the facts of the ruling. Ms. Climaco was sentenced to 30 years in prison for a case that was initially thought to be an abortion but was later ruled to be a homicide; she was not given 30 years in prison for an abortion that was ruled a homicide.

Source: National Review Online – MORE "TRUTH, JUSTICE, ABORTION AND THE TIMES MAGAZINE"

Hmmmm

Anyone who thinks any sort of analysis & reporting is going to be 100% correct is an idiot. However, it is always easiest to recognize the incorrectness in others and fail to recognize fallibility in our own work. That is called the human condition.

Unfortunately, all too many fail to recognize the humanity in themselves and in others. Usually one only sees it when they have so obviously fallen and then most fall back on the I am human defense they deny to others.

We see this in the MSM vs. blogger debates. We certainly see it in the right vs. left debate. Many would attribute this to an abnormally hyper-charged partisan environment we are in now-a-days. I would say it closer to normal than not.