[Dean's World] Dave Price: It's Starting To Sound A Lot Like RatherGate

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Posted by Dave Price:
It's Starting To Sound  A Lot Like RatherGate
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1165632919.shtml


   Remember when the first questions were raised on [1]this and curtly
   dismissed by CBS and [2]others in the media?
   The reaction to the [3]Jamil Hussein "burning Sunnis" story is
   starting to seem eerily similar.
   Demonizing critics--
   [4]Mary Mapes:

     The Bush administration was then at the height of its ability to
     summon a terrifying whirlwind of criticism from right wing
     bloggers, hate talk radio yackers, FOX News "reporters,"
     conservative columnists, and those hollering people whose heads
     always appear in little boxes on cable discussion shows. None of
     these critics cared anything about the facts of the story, only
     about their politics.

   [5]Kathleen Carroll:

     "In recent days, a handful of people have stridently criticized The
     Associated Pressâ coverage of a terrible attack on Iraqi citizens
     last month in Baghdad. Some of those critics question whether the
     incident happened at all and declare that they don't believe our
     reporting.
     Indeed, a small number of them have whipped themselves into an
     indignant lather over the AP's reporting.
     ...
     Questioning [stringers] integrity and work ethic is simply
     offensive.
     ...
     It's awfully easy to take pot shots from the safety of a computer
     keyboard thousands of miles from the chaos of Baghdad."

   Asserting the media's trustworthiness--
   [6]Kathleen Carroll

     The AP has been transparent and fair since the first day of our
     reporting on this issue.
     We have not ignored the questions about our work raised by the U.S.
     military and later, by the Iraqi Interior Ministry. Indeed, we
     published those questions while also sending AP journalists back
     out to the scene to dig further into what happened and why others
     might be questioning the initial accounts.
     The AP mission was to get at the facts, wherever those facts took
     us.

   [7]Dan Rather:

     "If the documents are not what we were led to believe, I'd like to
     break that story," Rather said in an interview last night. "Any
     time I'm wrong, I want to be right out front and say, 'Folks, this
     is what went wrong and how it went wrong.' "

   And finally, the paranoid ranting--
   [8]Mary Mapes:

     "I am shocked at the vitriolic scape-goating in Les Moonves'
     statement. I am very concerned that his actions are motivated by
     corporate and political considerations -- ratings rather than
     journalism."

   [9]John Daniszewski

     The attempt to question the existence of the known police officer
     who spoke to the AP is frankly ludicrous and hints at a certain
     level of desperation to dispute or suppress the facts of the
     incident in question.

   Well, at the risk of stridently and offensively working myself into a
   lather with my ludicrous, desperate attempts to suppress the truth,
   let me say this:
   Aside from the viciousness of the attacks on critics (so much for
   dispassionate objectivity), misstatements of fact (Carroll claims no
   one else has investigated the story on the ground, but LT Dean clearly
   states the matter was investigated by US/Iraqi forces, and the fact
   the military got the ball rolling with its demand for retraction makes
   the "chickenhawks" cheap shot pretty ridiculous and ironic) and total
   inability to produce Jamil Hussein, here's the problem with all the
   AP's supporting evidence: when they say "journalists" we know what
   they really mean in a lot of cases is Iraqi stringers. And while I'm
   sure many Iraqi stringers are honest, courageous, liberal-minded
   patriots, I am equally sure the insurgents (who know the only way to
   get American troops out is by moving American public opinion) are
   doing their best to get their slant put on things, either by
   intimidating the honest journalists (say, kidnapping their families)
   or putting their own guys in.
   The press is just far more emotionally committed to promoting their
   worldview and defending their work than to intellectual honesty. Don't
   expect them to budge as long as there's even a shred of hope for them
   to cling to on this story. Remember, Mary Mapes still thinks she was
   the victim, and Dan Rather still defends the debunked Bush Guard
   memos.

References

   1. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/09/08/60II/main641984.shtml
   2. http://www.boston.com/ae/media/articles/2004/09/11/authenticity_backed_on_bush_documents/
   3. http://hotair.com/archives/2006/12/08/ap-to-bloggers-stop-maligning-our-stringers-chickenhawks/
   4. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mary-mapes/in-defense-of-dan-rather_b_22358.html
   5. http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003494742
   6. http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003494742
   7. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24633-2004Sep15.html
   8. http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=76700
   9. http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2006/11/us_military_and.html