Time And Aljazeera Fail To Confirm AP Story

The AP's now infamous non-burning bodies story is back in the news courtesy of this Zeller piece in the New York Times.

Michelle Malkin has the round up, I'd encourage you to explore the links. These below are two additional items I found interesting. Via Time, it has a byline, a Baghdad date line but apparently the journalist couldn't confirm the AP's work. From Baghdad, Aparisim Ghosh writes:

The Iraqi Army was conspicuously absent, for example, in the Hurriya neighborhood, where rampaging Shi'ite militias damaged Sunni mosques and allegedly immolated worshipers.

Don't underestimate the significance of the usage, journos don't like to use allegedly - and for good reason. It stipulates they are passing along information which may not be much better than a rumor. So, the AP is standing behind a story neither the NY Times, as Michelle points out in her post, nor Time can independently confirm.

Now take a look at Aljazeera's pertinent report. Oh they report plenty of alleged violence that day ... in great detail. But not a single mention of the infamous AP report of burning bodies. They wonder why we call it al-AP when they print propaganda even Aljazeera can't manufacture? Geesh!

Witnesses said masked gunmen attacked about five mosques in the Hurriya neighborhood in northwestern Baghdad.

Imad al-Din al-Hashemi, a university professor visiting Baghdad, said he was in the Nida Allah mosque when it was attacked during Friday prayers.

"It was attacked by RPGs and many people were killed and wounded. When the gunmen moved on to attack another mosque we evacuated the wounded," he told Reuters.

About ten people were also killed at the nearby Ahbab Mustafa mosque, Hashemi said.

Some homes in the neighborhood were also set on fire, he added.

Another witness who refused to be identified said he saw an attack by gunmen on a mosque close to his home.

"We heard blasts and went outside. I saw gunmen fire rockets at the al-Muheiman mosque. Others were firing heavy machine guns," he said. "From the roof of my house we saw more than 10 houses ablaze."

A police spokesman said 30 people were killed and 48 wounded in the Hurriya violence.

Uruknet even cites a report in Arabic but no mention of any burning bodies. You think it wouldn't be front page news there? Zeller can talk about blogs versus the AP all he wants, but he left out that it's the AP and their story, not bloggers who are standing alone. And the AP is a long way from standing straight up on this one. They should have retracted when they had a chance. You'd think the AP would realize it's almost always the cover-up that's so much more damaging than the crime they called journalism in this case.

Azzaman newspaper reported that the Mahdi Army militiamen kidnapped several Sunni young men in Jamila neighborhood on Friday. They executed in 83 Square in Talbiya neighborhood after they gathered people to watch the execution.

The paper also reported that residents of al-Hurriya neighborhood were attacked by the militiamen in front of police and security forces who did nothing to prevent the killings.

Comments

[AJ Lynch]

The NYT story quoted a piece of the story that spoke of a 1.3 gallon can of kerosene. That does not sound like enough fluid to thoroughly douse six people!! And it also gasped at the "story details" and asked how the story could be wrong since it had so many details......is it possbile they forget the Jason Blair incidents?

And lastly, compare and contrast this- the NYT asks if the story could be "wrong". They did not ask if the story could be false or misleading or cherry-picked. You know like all the words they use re WMD intelligence. F-them I say. I will never buy that paper again until the current mgt is dead and gone.

[Nikolay]

FYI, Al-Jazeera you give a link to has nothing to do with Al-Jazeera TV Channel, which has address english.aljazeera.net. I doubt AlJazeera.com has its own sources.

[Carol Herman]

You mean, they can't find The Green Helmet Man?

Gee. He must be very tied up in Tent City right now, huh?

Like the AP hasn't tattered their reputation, yet. Well? Dan Blather also thinks nobody anchored an anchor chair quite as well as he. Prety obvious, though that the "terror elements work hand in hand with the PR people who want to substitute propaganda for news." Won't work. They don't have hitler's machinery.

As to Londonstan, something sure went wrong when the Polonium hit the fan. Must have been hot in that room, after the spill. Maybe? They tried to vacuum up the "substance" since their Geiger Counters weren't clicking. Prime examples of how crimes get busted. (That "stuff" was $50-million dollars worth of Black Market profits.)

So by "freak accidents" we get a window IN. And, the bad guys? Heck, they didn't sign up to get cancer, ya know?

During the 1930's it was worse. The Jews had no self defense. So they "followed instructions" all the way to the gas chambers.