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Bias, Bassem Mroue, and Speaking Truth to Media Power
By John
After reading the excellent work by bloggers Patterico and Flopping Aces, this lead from AP stringer Bassem Mroue set off a few mental alarms:
Mortars Set Fire to US Base in Iraq (AP) --
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Two mortar rounds hit a U.S. military post in eastern Baghdad on Sunday, setting it on fire, police and witnesses said. A large cloud of black smoke was seen rising above Baladiyat, a predominantly Shiite area of capital, at about 3 p.m.Lt. Col. Scott Bleichwehl, a U.S. military spokesman, confirmed that "indirect fire rounds" had landed in the vicinity of the coalition forward operating base, but he refused to describe the results of the attack, saying that would allow "the enemy" to assess its effectiveness.
The fact that there is indirect mortar fire in a war zone barely qualifies as "news-in-brief" material, yet the AP floated this as today's top story. Think of it this way. Mortars are used at the squad and platoon level, the basic warfighting elements in our combat infantry units. They are a scant step above heavy machine guns as far as warfighting tech goes. To a servicemember, running this story at the top of the fold is the rough equivilant of the Washington Post frontpaging a story on Cletus and Gilbert discharging shotguns in the Washington National Forest. It simply does not make sense.
Triggered by the work of Patterico and Flopping Aces, I ran a quick search into Mr. Bassem Mroue. I wanted to know why he felt this was earth-shattering news. Sure enough, Mroue's less-than-even journalistic practices were exposed earlier this summer by the blogosphere's ever-alert media watchdogs.
Here's short list of bloggers who have covered Mr. Mroue's agenda-driven reporting.
NRO Media Blog
My Pet Jawa
Newsbusters
Now whether or not anti-Israeli bias translates to anti-American bias is subject to speculation. In my experience, it usually does, particularly when you're talking about Arab stringers. But the question in itself segues into another important topic: the credibility of blogger critiques on MSM reporting.
While chatting informally with a journalist -a pro, so to speak- about the upcoming 2007 Milblogging Conference, the reporter groaned "oh man, this isn't going to be 3 days of trashing the media is it?"
Caught a bit off-guard, I stammered out a "well, yeah. I suppose that'll be part of it." Integrity counts. The inadequacies of the media were discussed at length during 2006's conference, pretending like the topic wouldn't be a part of next year's event is would have been dishonest.
What bothered me about the reporter's question was the reflection of how the MSM views bloggers (and to a smaller extent milbloggers). To the media elites, we're just a bunch of armchair quarterbacks who are constantly telling them how poor they are at their jobs. Which is somewhat ironic, in that I felt the same way about journalists and the military. Still, that perception blinds reporters to the very real, very specific grievances that milbloggers have leveled against media giants regarding their coverage in Iraq, issues that should be seriously considered instead of callously dismissed.
During the 2005 conference, I never heard a panelist throw out an ambiguous, hazily phrased critique of war reporting. Instead I heard laser-focused grievances: "reporters never leave the Green Zone," or "they are employing stringers with ties to the insurgency."
These are valid complaints, and are most certainly directly related to the plummeting popularity of MSM rags and rising popularity of independent embeds like Roggio, Yon, and Totten.
Bassem Mroue's case alone should be a blazing red flag to the AP. When indirect mortar fire in a war zone is headline news, something is wrong. When the Pentagon is forced to stand up an entire unit dedicated to fighting reporting inaccuracies, something is wrong. When a major news network airs enemy propaganda thinly disguised as a story, something is wrong. Breathing in all of that foul air at once leads me to believe that something is rotten.
Doctored photos, suspect stringers, slanted reporting, all of this helps the enemy. If military bloggers don't have a dog in this fight, then who the hell does?
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Comments
WIth all the petrodollars floating around, I believe it must be asked if the MSM is taking money for their errors of ommission and commission.
I wouldn't be surprised. Our opponents are far more savvy in this field of war than we are... and yes, the media and IO are fields of war... non-lethal yes, but just as critical (even more so, in my opinion) than killing insurgents.
Here's his blog (apparently):
http://bassemmroue.blogspot.com/
Who needs Axis Sally, Tokyo Rose, or Hanoi Hannah when you have the AP?!
The reporter doesn't determine how high his story ranks in the news budget. That decision is made by an editor or editors.
Kind of a basic point of understanding needed for valid media criticism.
I think I know the answer.
Maybe.
Phrased as a question ....
Would the MSM be doing this if their circulation numbers weren't falling??
I reposted the screenshot of Mroue's anti-Israel post from this July at Jawa Report.
This little AP termite needs some exposure.
This is only days after the utterly dishonest AP lead story of "Deadliest day EVER in Iraq" , of course it wasn't the deadliest day EVER in Iraq but maybe since the invasion. But facts don't matter when you have a military to undermine.
Next day was Tom Raum of the AP saying that the Iraq war had lasted longer than WWII. My email exchange with Mr. Raum revealed a pathetic ignorance of the fact that U.S. troops were still stationed in Europe, Germany and Japan.
CBS today had the nerve to tell Abizaid that the U.S. already "lost" Iraq. The nerve of this #@$#%# to tell a General that she knows more about warfare than him is utterly typical of the condescending snobbery and bias of these people.
And of course NBC lecturing all of us about how Iraq is now in a civil war. Of course they claim to know more than our military leaders, Iraqi leaders, Kofi Annan and most military observers.
Overall, a lousy, biased, ignorant, and typically useless day for the scumbags known as the (anti) American media
This is only days after the utterly dishonest AP lead story of "Deadliest day EVER in Iraq" , of course it wasn't the deadliest day EVER in Iraq but maybe since the invasion. But facts don't matter when you have a military to undermine.
Next day was Tom Raum of the AP saying that the Iraq war had lasted longer than WWII. My email exchange with Mr. Raum revealed a pathetic ignorance of the fact that U.S. troops were still stationed in Europe, Germany and Japan.
CBS today had the nerve to tell Abizaid that the U.S. already "lost" Iraq. The nerve of this #@$#%# to tell a General that she knows more about warfare than him is utterly typical of the condescending snobbery and bias of these people.
And of course NBC lecturing all of us about how Iraq is now in a civil war. Of course they claim to know more than our military leaders, Iraqi leaders, Kofi Annan and most military observers.
Overall, a lousy, biased, ignorant, and typically useless day for the scumbags known as the (anti) American media
Thanks to the MSM, this country will never again be able to wage and win a war. It is disgusting to see the media act as propagandists for the enemies of the very country that affords them the first amendment. There is something seriously wrong with a nation when that nations own media roots against its troops on a daily basis.
Alright, we've gotten the bitches and gripes out of our systems... what is the solution to this problem?
The reasons are mentioned above as to why the MSM is losing its customers. They had the monopoly of the news for the longest time. But the advent of the internet and the growing number of people who use it for news and information, it is not a wonder why so many MSM outlets are cutting on their personnel or closing offices. Keep on blogging.
Joel makes a good point, but rememner a few months back when the MSM and some Dem members of Congress made a BFD when they thought the military was planting positive stories about the war in Iraq media? For some reason, our side is not supposed to use the media for PSYOPS. Stupid!
jonny511
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There's nothing "wrong" about it. The media are a tool (at best) of the enemy and we have failed to recognize and combat it. I don't blame the insurgents for conducting what has been a good, thorough IO campaign using the willing media. As those guys on the Guiness commercial would say... "BRILLIANT!"
The Pentagon creates a unit merely to play damage control. What is needed is a good, offensive-minded PSYOP campaign that will drive these guys into the mud. It can be done, but it's an ugly affair and something that the leadership understands little of and is less willing to undertake. It involves false headlines, generating rumors, and discrediting media outlets (i.e. mudslinging). Not too different from the way most politicians run their political campaigns.
So, like constantly going out and getting IED'd and then calling the attacks "cowardly", we sit around and let the enemy kick our asses all over the IO field and then sit around and cry "foul" without really doing anything about it.