Fake But Accurate?

Anti-war veterans like Micah Ian Wright and Jim Massey have stories to tell. Touring with Cindy Sheehan, writing anti-war books, painting George W. Bush as a liar, and relating US military war atrocities they witnessed... unfortunately none of it's true.

Those of you on the left who are still interested in being objective should take progressive news sources with a grain of salt. Because much of what passes for liberal news isn't. It's just propaganda, on par with the Workers World Party newsletter. (Just look at the stories on their website, they're not much different from what's on the DNC website.)

I am beginning to get concerned for some of you because if even average liberal news reporters are failing to excercise any critical thinking skills, what about those who have no pretense of objectivity?

Massey's lies were reported by newspapers like USA Today without question. I assume just because it fit within their worldview, in which an average US marine would return from an illegal war started by an illigitimate president and protest war atrocities he claims he saw there.

Like the NY Times dishonest editing of Corporal Starr's letter, the MSM seem to be playing fast and loose with the facts. Not only is this detrimental to our country, but it is detrimental to journalism itself. Because news is supposed to be news. Not the slanted bias that passes for news so often these days.

How can wild stories about shooting small children, trailers full of dead civilian bodies, indiscriminant shooting of peaceful protestors, and the like, not prompt a few reporters to even make a phone call or two to corroborate? Perhaps they didn't want to, or perhaps they were following the liberal journalistic creed of Dan "Fake, but Accurate" Rather.

But none of the AP reporters ever called Ravi Nessman, an Associated Press reporter who was embedded with Massey's unit. Nessman wrote more than 30 stories about the unit from the beginning of the war until April 15, after Baghdad had fallen.

Jack Stokes, a spokesman for the AP, said he didn't know why the reporters didn't talk to Nessman, nor could he explain why the AP ran stories without seeking a response from the Marine Corps. The organization also refused to allow Nessman to be interviewed for this story. Why did the press swallow Massey's stories?

Media outlets throughout the world have reported Jimmy Massey's claims of war crimes, frequently without ever seeking to verify them.

For instance, no one ever called any of the five journalists who were embedded with Massey's battalion to ask him or her about his claims. stltoday

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