An Apology to the Media – Moon of Alabama

Back to Main

May 14, 2007

An Apology to the Media

Dear media,

I was wrong, terribly wrong. Please accept my apology.

In my posting about your reports on the recent capturing of U.S. soldiers in Iraqi I alleged:

There must be some institutionalized media amnesia with regard to reports on U.S. behavior in foreign countries.

That statement was wrong. I defamed the media and I am very sorry for this.

At the time of my writing none of your reports I had seen made the obvious connection of the recent capture to an earlier event in the same Iraqi town. Last year U.S. soldiers raped a 14 year old girl in Mahmoudiya and they killed her and her family.

The current event was an obvious revenge act but that was not mentioned in your reports.

I concluded that the media, not reporting the relation, had a Mahmoudiya Amnesia.

That was false and I do apologize for that.

Today agencies distribute news that some "al-Qaida" gang confesses they took these prisoners because of that rape. The connection, which explains the motives of the resistance, is now widely and prominently reported on.

Down the tenth paragraph of its story on the news release the New York Times writes:

The statement went on to cite the American mistreatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and the rape last year of a teenaged girl by American troops near the site where the abduction occurred.

It adds:

Its statements had a similar tone to the statements issued in the last few days, and they, too, referred to the rape in Mahmudiya last year.

I really have to apologize here.

It is not true that the media did not make the connection. There was no media amnesia.

They media did know about the connection. Maybe those statements "issued in the last few days," were needed to remember, but they did know about them and about the motives of the catchers "in the last few days."

They just did not mention them in their public reports.

There certainly was no amnesia. I apologize for asserting such.

There was just willfully suppression of the motives for the act they did report on. There was no amnesia.

You just thought people shouldn’t know about the motives that drive the resistance in Iraq.

Such knowledge could lead to judgement. 9/11, 9/11, 9/11 …

Please accept my apology.

Posted by b on May 14, 2007 at 21:22 UTC | Permalink

Comments

Very good catch Bernhard!
And, not surprisingly, the capture of occupation soldiers provides inspiration to others:

A Danish soldier was killed and five others were wounded when an explosive device was detonated near their vehicle patrol north of Basra, the Danish Ministry of Defence said on Monday, while a police source said that British forces freed three Danish servicemen, whom were kidnapped earlier by unidentified gunmen.

Posted by: Alamet | May 15 2007 0:12 utc | 1

Wait! and which Al Qaeda would that be? hummm?
Also see, FBI agent testifies he posed as al-Qaida recruiter …

Posted by: Uncle $cam | May 15 2007 2:00 utc | 2

Inspired by your post, I’ve been monitoring NPR. Today at the 3 PM newsbreak, they mentioned the al-Quaida claim, then forgot it for the next newsbreaks and the first 2 hours of ATC. Finally at the 6 o’clock ATC cycle, they included the rape reference again, after I sent an EMail to NPR asking why they had added, then dropped the reference.
Nothing to see here. Just move along now

Posted by: Peter VE | May 15 2007 2:34 utc | 3

But last year it wasn’t Al-Qaida that kidnapped the soldiers in Mahmoudiya in retribution for the rape and murders, just Iraqi ‘terrorists’ or ‘insurgents’ or something to that effect. It appears this year, blaming Al-Qaida is in fashion for just about everything that goes wrong in Bush’s war, hence Al-Qaida kidnapped these soldiers in Mahmoudiya in retribution for the rape and murders. Taking turns, I guess.

Posted by: Ensley | May 15 2007 4:25 utc | 4

Should I retract my apology?
The story now on the NYT website still has a half-sentence on the rape, but the reference to “statements issued in the last few days” has vanished while other stuff has been added.
Stuff like this:

Two Iraqi security officials in the area, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters, said that five Humvees were on a rural road in predawn darkness when a roadside bomb exploded near the fourth, setting it ablaze. As gunmen stormed the fifth Humvee, abducting the three soldiers, the first three vehicles continued on.

and this:

One of the senior Iraqi Army officials in the area who described the attack said that fighting between American troops and Qaeda fighters had broken out in a few places since the search began and that at least two gunmen had been killed and about 100 people arrested, including an older man who may have died while in custody.

Posted by: b | May 15 2007 6:49 utc | 5

I also want to apologize to my sister for phoptocopying those pages out of her diary and ask that she please either return or destroy the girlie magazines she found in my bottom drawer instead of showing them to mom…

Posted by: ralphieboy | May 15 2007 16:24 utc | 6

…your girlie magazines for her diary!???!!

Posted by: Anonymous | May 15 2007 16:34 utc | 7

twas me above.

Posted by: beq | May 15 2007 16:35 utc | 8

beq,
You mean you’re my long-lost sister?

Posted by: ralphieboy | May 15 2007 18:49 utc | 9

@ #1 (alamet) many thanks for the link!
The Danish media has made absolutely no reference to a foiled abduction of three Danish soldiers.
However, there was a reference this evening to an attack on three Danes who were to have a secret meeting with some clan elder about rebuilding a school — they were attacked, they asked for backup and it was the reinforcements (which came in two waves) who were stopped by a roadside bomb and thereafter ambushed (this is where the Danish soldier was killed).
The point is, the stories do not necessarily exclude each other. The attack on the first group may very well have been an attempt at abduction. If it failed to actually lay hands on them, the Danish Radio may have editorially decided it was best to just call it an “attack”. The Danish TV is mainly license paid PBR, but has been under heavy political pressure from the right wing gov’t because they said negative things about the Danish membership of the “Coalition of the Willing” in 2003.
With a contingent of 600 or so soldiers and 7 deaths in a relativly stable area NE of Basra, support for Danish participation is at an all time low. The tabloid “Ekstra Bladet” had a headline scream today, “Eight have died for a Lie!” (they include death in the contingent we have in Helman province in Afghanistan).
As always, as the Danes say, “the truth has a lot of footnotes”

Posted by: Chuck Cliff | May 15 2007 20:41 utc | 10

Chuck Cliff, you’re welcome. Could it be that the Danish media didn’t report it because they didn’t know it? Unless they have embeds in Iraq, they would be dependent on the military for information…
Aswat al Iraq is a professional news organization, and so far their incident coverage has proved fairly accurate, much better than what Western media offers.
And here is a tiny bit of further corraboration, posted earlier: Raed says, “a number of Arabic news websites, affiliated with armed groups in Iraq, are reporting that 3 Danish troops were captured by an ‘Iraqi resistance group’.”
Hope that helps…

Posted by: Alamet | May 16 2007 13:37 utc | 11

Back to Main