Dec

4

Integrity

December 4, 2006 | By Sniper One |

Over the past year we have seen many instances where the major news outlets (AP, Reuters) journalist integrity has been brought into question. We’ve seen the “Fauxtography” scandal, and now we are dealing with the burning Sunnis, or “Jamilgate“.

Whatever happened to newspapers actually doing fact checking before they published an article? What happened to doing some real investigative reporting?

The very fact that the integrity of a “news agency” is being brought into question means that the agency has lost the war. News outlets are supposed to be above politics, above agendas. They are supposed to report the news, without agenda.

To quote Dragnet, “Just the facts, Ma’am”.

(NYT) Iraq’s interior ministry wielded the article like a bludgeon and used it as an opportunity to create a press monitoring unit that suggested, in no uncertain terms, that reporters in Baghdad should come to its press officers for “real, true news.” A ministry spokesman promised “legal action” — whatever that might mean — against journalists who publish information the agency deemed wrong.

That may seem patently absurd. But in a country where most of the on-street, in-neighborhood reporting for Western news organizations is done by native Iraqis — working at great personal risk — the threat of “legal action” may reverberate with tones more menacing, and more damaging to a free press, than they seem at first blush.

Why would another “news agency” defend the AP for publishing a piece of “news” that has been brought into question by both Central Command, and the Iraqi Interior Ministry. Why would anyone support such a sloppy news piece?

There have been terrorist organization who have claimed that they are using our news outlets against us. Could it be that the use of native Iraqis is part of the problem? Could it be that some of the native Iraqis have an agenda of their own, perhaps even a terrorist agenda?

Shouldn’t the AP be working with Central Command and the Iraqi Interior Ministry to verify news coming out of Iraq?

Meanwhile, little in the way of fallout over the event itself has been detected — no outcry, no heated, televised denunciations from Sunni clerics and politicians — as might be expected from what The Associated Press itself called “one of the most horrific alleged attacks of Iraq’s sectarian war.”

And so questions lingered and the blogs raged on.

Doesn’t that legitimately throw the story under a bus? Doesn’t that beg the obvious questions? Why should we, the blog community be asking these questions, when it’s your job to ask them for us.

Are we seeing the death of good journalism? Or is this just the logical evolution of the media from “Rathergate” and it’s “Fake But Accurate” mantra.

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Filed Under: Bizarre, Global War On Terror, New York Times, News of the Day, Operation Iraqi Freedom

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    Comments

    2 Comments so far

    1. Flopping Aces on December 4, 2006 11:19

      Responding To The New York Times…

      The New York Times has a new article out tomorrow in which they skewer blogs for having the audacity to question them: For bloggers who believe that the media has been drawing false pictures of mayhem in Iraq, the insistence……

    2. Flopping Aces » Blog Archive » » Responding To The New York Times on February 9, 2008 18:56

      [...] 7.62mm Justice: There have been terrorist organization who have claimed that they are using our news outlets against us. Could it be that the use of native Iraqis is part of the problem? Could it be that some of the native Iraqis have an agenda of their own, perhaps even a terrorist agenda? [...]

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