PRESS PATTERNS
CENTCOM vs. AP Dispute Remains a Standoff [Stephen Spruiell]
It's tempting to write off, as some already have, the ongoing dispute between CENTCOM and the AP as just another MSM non-scandal stirred up by those crazy right-wing bloggers. For instance, take this raving nutjob from that notoriously conservative rag, the New York Times:
So Just Who Is Capt. Jamil Hussein?
Against the backdrop of the civil war, occupation, Baathist insurgency, sectarian conflict, and struggle against terrorists in Iraq, to borrow a few descriptors, in addition to the historic meeting between President Bush and Iraq’s Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki today, another battle is brewing. This one pits conservative bloggers and the military’s communications machine against the Associated Press — and the media at large.
At the center of things is one police Capt. Jamil Hussein. Mr. Hussein was the primary source in an Associated Press wire-dispatch last Friday reporting that Shiite militiamen had “grabbed six Sunnis as they left Friday worship services, doused them with kerosene and burned them alive near Iraqi soldiers who did not intervene.” [...]
The one thing that remains unclear, though, is this: The Associated Press said in its story yesterday that Mr. Hussein “has been a regular source of police information for two years and had been visited by the AP reporter in his office at the police station on several occasions.” The military, meanwhile, seems to suggest that Mr. Hussein is not a police officer, nor a civil servant in the employ of any Iraqi agency.
So who IS Mr. Hussein?
Good question. Despite statements from CENTCOM and an official spokesman for the Iraqi government, the AP is sticking with its initial answer:
As stated in AP's November 28 news story, this captain 'has been a regular source of police information for two years and had been visited by the AP reporter in his office at the police station on several occasions.' [...]
"Navy Lieutenant Dean's statement seems to suggest that the news media should work solely from a government list of 'authorized sources.' But a free press cultivates a wide range of sources. That's what AP did in this case, as it always does."
Wrong. Dean did not argue, or even suggest, that the news media should work solely from approved sources. All he said was that the AP's source in this instance does not appear to be who he claims to be. Given our enemy's goal of driving us from Iraq by undermining domestic political support for our mission there, shouldn't the AP be making more of an effort to explain fully to its readers just who the hell this guy is?
11/30 01:30 PM
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