False News From Iraq: Headless Bodies Found And Unfounded
THE enemy chopepd their heads off right in front of the kids. Only, they didn’t. Why make thigns up when the reality is so grim?
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Separate groups of gunmen entered two primary schools in Baghdad on Wednesday and beheaded two teachers in front of their students, the Ministry of State for National Security said.”Two terrorist groups beheaded two teachers in front of their students in the Amna and Shaheed Hamdi primary schools in Shaab district in Baghdad,” a ministry statement said.
A ministry official said he believed the attacks were aimed at: “intimidating pupils and disrupting learning.”
But:
Fortunately, the story is not true. (If you are a daily reader of the Dawn Patrol, you already knew that.)But that didn’t stop Reuters from running with the story – and thus far hasn’t concerned them enough to post a correction along with the original report either. (Or “disappear” it altogether.)
Bad enough had this been the first time a major (allegedly credible) news organization had been so hoodwinked, but this is the second such story we’ve noted here this month. The previous example came from the NY Times, and also involved reports of headless corpses allegedly made by an unnamed official from a government agency.
The old story went like this:
Reuters – BAGHDAD, Iraq, March 26 — The bodies of 30 beheaded men were found on a main highway near Baquba this evening, providing more evidence that the death squads in Iraq are becoming out of control.
The Press briefing went like this:
Q: About, on the news that we heard this week of a number of headless bodies being found along a road in Baghdad. I was wondering what more you could tell us about that, what you know about the victims, and who the perpetrators were?GEN. THURMAN: Okay. I did understand that question, and what I would tell you — we have not confirmed that report. We went to multiple sites to look for the 32 headless bodies that was reported to our headquarters, and we did not find anything; nor did any of the local citizens that were in these areas could verify that anybody had ever been in there. So I look at that report as completely false right now.
Spotter: ED B.
Posted: 1st, July 2007 | In: Reviews Comment (1) | TrackBack | Permalink
