January 16, 2006
"faked", but true....
Once again the New York Slimes have resorted to the "fake but true" method of reporting. This time it was in the use of a photograph instead of words, but the effect is the same. The photo has been taken off the on-line edition of the paper, and a disclaimer correcting the original assertion that the ordnance in question was the remains of a rocket used by American forces was posted...but the damage was already done.
From the link above:
The picture shows a sad little boy, with a turbaned man next to him, a little bit further from the camera, amid the ruins of a house. Other men and boys peer in from the background. The photo is captioned:
“Pakistani men with the remains of a missile fired at a house in the Bajur tribal zone near the Afghan border.”
The story it accompanies is about the apparently failed attempt to take out al Qaeda’s #2 man al Zawahiri, with a missile attack from a Predator drone.
“How sad!” readers are encouraged to think. “These poor people are on the receiving end of awful weapons used by the clumsy minions of Bush. And all to no avail. Isn’t it terrible? Why must America do such horrible misdeeds? Bush must go!”
Anyone that had a passing aquaintence with military ordnance would immedietly identify the "remains of a missile fired from a Predator drone" as either a 152 or 155 MM artillery shell....a "dud' artillery shell, from the rifleing grooves on the body of the shell.
Seems that those vaunted "layers of fact checkers and editors" fell down on the job...AGAIN.
So..a photo is staged to give the impression of inept military action (American, that is) and to cast the opponents in a sorrowful light of the poor innocent victims of same. The action was real; there was a purported gathering of Al Quida operatives in the three houses struck by MISSILES, but the photo was fake, and presented in such a way to denigrate our soldiers. It was another case of "fake, but true" method of trying to shape public opinion..
It might have worked better if just one of those fact checkers knew the difference between their own black holes of ego driven agenda driven "reporting" and a blast hole from a 155MM shell.
Just incidentally..it appears that the shell has a fuse still attached, so anyone within ten yards of that shell was playing high explosive Russian roulette...no doubt that Bush would have been blamed for that as well..
Hey Achmed, hit that with a hammer!
Posted by Delftsman3 at January 16, 2006 03:45 PM | TrackBack