All The Spin That's Fit To Print

Today's Stars & Stripes has an excellent article regarding the quick-reacting media and thier irresponsible reporting of the war in Iraq.

One widespread report — that 16 children were killed by a car bomb while playing soccer in downtown Ramadi — was offered up by Iraqi police sources and local tribal leaders. According the U.S. military, it is entirely false.

While insurgents have repeatedly used car bombs to kill Ramadi officials and civilians (15 people, mostly adults, died in a car bomb blast Monday), the U.S. military said no car bombings occurred in southeast Ramadi at the time of the reported soccer field bombing.

What did happen, they said, was that 31 men, women and children were injured when U.S. bomb disposal technicians conducted a “controlled detonation” of seized explosives and propane tanks and misjudged the size of the blast. The blast occurred around 5:30 p.m., and all but one of the injured were civilians.

“The blast was much larger than expected, shattering glass in surrounding buildings and injuring the civilians,” a U.S. news release read. The victims were struck by flying glass and debris; none of the injuries appeared to be life threatening.

Despite the fact that no soccer field bombing occurred, media across the globe seized on the story. Both the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times carried quotes from the offices of President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki condemning the bombing. Maliki blamed “criminal gangs” for the “crime against children in their innocent playgrounds.”

How rich. The piece contiues.

There is also the possibility, however, that the false reports of a soccer field bombing were a calculated lie, the result of a breakneck news cycle increasingly used as a weapon in an information battle between militants, tribes and the U.S. military.

...

U.S. officials say they are constantly responding to false claims made by insurgents regarding collateral damage and the deaths of civilians. The enemy, they say, is intent on destroying a recently formed alliance between the U.S. military and more than a dozen local tribes in this provincial capital of 500,000.

Marine Captain Paul Duncan explains that this type of spread disinformation is aiding the enemy and hindering the coalition. How true.

One officer said that “it may be a matter of confusion, and it may be a matter of them making it up on purpose. He's just glad to see that the officials here are getting out in front. They’re dealing with the enemy on their own level.”