July 24, 2003
Our gullible media
News Dissector Web Log mentions Jessica Lynch’s triumphant return to her home town of Palestine:
Yesterday some of that coverage was discussed by Amy Goodman on her Democracy Now progra,m. She had on the Washington Post Ombudsman Michael Getler to discuss the Jessica Lynch story and comment on the false reports on her heroic rescue and the efforts the nespaper made to correct its original reporting. The Post did do second version of the story early on, before the British Press, BBC and even Democracy Now. But it was placed way back in the paper and did not have the same impact. The larger problem is that this whole charade was buried Tuesday during the Jessica Homecoming. At that time, PFC Lynch broke her silence and thanked her military comrades, the US hospitals that cared for her and even made reference to some unnamed Iraqi civilians for helping her. She did not redit the Iraqi hospital or doctors who saved her life. Her speech has clearly been well vetted. It sounded like a commercial for the Army. I wish her well in her recovery. We still need to know more about how the Pentagon produced and sold the phony story of her heroic gun battle and rescue. And why so many media outlets bought it.
Why did so many media outlets buy the Pentagon version of this story? The same reason so many media outlets were fooled into reporting this hoax. Reporters simply do not do any follow up research. If the Pentagon, or an entrepreneur, say something is so, then it must be true, especially if there’s a few minutes of compelling video to accompany the story.
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