Rumsfeld
yesterday:
The news media in the United States and abroad has misreported the number of Iraqi civilians that have been killed and the number of mosques that have come under attack, Rumsfeld said at a Pentagon news conference.
Tomorrow morning's Page 1 story in the Washington Post:
Official Says Shiite Party Suppressed Body Count
By Ellen Knickmeyer
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, March 9, 2006; A01
BAGHDAD, March 8 -- Days after the bombing of a Shiite shrine unleashed a wave of retaliatory killings of Sunnis, the leading Shiite party in Iraq's governing coalition directed the Health Ministry to stop tabulating execution-style shootings, according to a ministry official familiar with the recording of deaths.
The official, who spoke on the condition that he not be named because he feared for his safety, said a representative of the Shiite party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, ordered that government hospitals and morgues catalogue deaths caused by bombings or clashes with insurgents, but not by execution-style shootings.
A statement this week by the U.N. human rights department in Baghdad appeared to support the account of the Health Ministry official. The agency said it had received information about Baghdad's main morgue -- where victims of fatal shootings are taken -- that indicated "the current acting director is under pressure by the Interior Ministry in order not to reveal such information and to minimize the number of casualties."
People, the Washington Post gets a lot of heat in these parts, often deservedly so. But this entire story - which reads like a spy novel - is an incredible piece of investigative reporting. The official who is the source began to retract his statements, the Post cross-checked with other agencies and sources and finally began sending Post reporters into the morgue (since late February). It's complicated, nuanced and analytical.
The Post is going to get blasted by the administration for this - and we're going to be told once again how the media is losing us this war. Do yourself a favor and read the whole piece. This is what America deserves from its media. This is what journalism - real journalism - looks like.