The U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division's Task Force Baghdad is releasing statements to the media, which is good because it is pretty damn dangerous for reporters to go get their own statements from on the street Iraqi's.
The only problem is, the Task Force apparently has the journalistic ethics of Jason Blair and Robert Novac combined. Or possibly their "unnamed Iraqi" just keeps repeating the talking points over and over.
CNN has the story, or read it below
On July 13, 2005 after an attack that killed mostly children in Baghdad the Task Force release the following quote from an unnamed Iraqi:
" 'The terrorists are attacking the infrastructure, the children and all of Iraq,' said one Iraqi man who preferred not to be identified. 'They are enemies of humanity without religion or any sort of ethics. They have attacked my community today and I will now take the fight to the terrorists.' "
On Sunday, after the attacks on the Iraqi Security Forces police station in Iraq, the Task Force released this statement from an unnamed Iraqi:
" 'The terrorists are attacking the infrastructure, the ISF and all of Iraq. They are enemies of humanity without religion or any sort of ethics. They have attacked my community today and I will now take the fight to the terrorists,' said one Iraqi man who preferred not to be identified."
Notice any similarities. Of course the Task Force did regret the "confusion" caused by this "administrative error," but did not offer any explanation.
I'm well beyond believing that the coverage of Iraq we see is giving us the whole story, and I don't necessarily think the MSM is even a credible source for information on the situation over there, however, the Military taking steps to create news is a completely different issue.
The Administration through their now defunct "Office of Stratigic Influence" clearly stated their intentions of lying to the international press. We know that Scotty has lied to the U.S. Press. This is not really a hot topic, just another example.
If the MSM keeps going to the government for information, they are going to keep loosing credibility with their readers. The shame of it all is that they no longer to spend the resources necessary to actually report the news.