Allah Asks: Is the AP Covering Its Tracks?
Is there anyone who reads this blog but doesn’t read Hot Air? Don’t answer that. Well, on the off chance that there are two or three of you, let me direct you to an excellent post by Allah, in which he asks: Is the AP covering its tracks?
By the way, I second Allah’s observation about the AP wanting us all to forget about four burning mosques. Me, I’m not going to let them off the hook that easily.
The Jamil Hussein Saga Continues…
In a far more serious update, it would appear AP is trying to cover up its tracks by rewriting its earlier articles to delete confirmation of burned bodies by morgue workers. Now, why would AP do this? The original version can still be found at the U…..
A Blog For All (59ce3a) — 12/19/2006 @ 6:21 pmErr, yeah. but i’m probably it.
SayUncle (79c3b1) — 12/19/2006 @ 6:31 pmI read Hot Air but I’m not registered with Word Press (and don’t really want to be) so I can’t leave a comment there. However, I think there may be more differences with the articles than Allah has highlighted. There was also this 11/25/06 article that lists “AP correspondents Thomas Wagner, Bassem Mroue and Qais al-Bashir” as contributors and that contains describes other inflammatory events that seem to have disappeared in later articles.
Below is the first 2/3 of the article, including portions I’ve bolded that vary from other AP reports:
It’s interesting that this article included a statement by President Talabani that the there were no reports of violence in the Hurriyah neighborhood. I haven’t seen that repeated in other AP stories.
DRJ (a5fa81) — 12/19/2006 @ 7:49 pmI’m one of the ones that reads this site but not Hot Air.
Anyone who would state the AP is “anti-American” just because it doesn’t parrot fringe right paranoia has no interest in anything but making a buck off rubes…
Patterico, your site is a model of rational discourse by comparison.
Neville Chamberlain (80a4fa) — 12/19/2006 @ 8:06 pmI don’t know what to believe anymore but:
1. If it’s true that 215 Sadr City residents were killed earlier that day and in prior days by Sunnis, and
2. If there is no or little evidence to support the report that the Sunni mosque immolations actually occurred …
Then it strikes me that this may have been a Sunni propaganda effort aimed at portraying Sunnis as victims rather than attackers. In other words, could Capt. Hussein’s report have been a Sunni diversionary tactic designed to distract reporters from stories of extensive Sunni violence in Sadr City by escalating with claims that Sunnis were being burned alive?
DRJ (a5fa81) — 12/19/2006 @ 8:07 pmi don’t read hot air. i don’t have time to read every damn politics/journalism blog on the web and i like this one, so this will have to be it. i read several other blogs, but they don’t cover the same subjects.
assistant devil's advocate (a29af7) — 12/19/2006 @ 8:38 pmGiven how critical you are of me and my positions, I’m curious why you like this one.
Patterico (de0616) — 12/19/2006 @ 8:39 pmWhere’s the profit in reading the opinions of people who agree with you?
It’s the intellectual equivalent of suckling at your mommy’s teat…
Neville Chamberlain (80a4fa) — 12/20/2006 @ 12:02 amFYI, when you register with a WordPress-powered site, you’re not registering “with WordPress.” It isn’t like TypeKey. You can register on Hot Air and not be known to any other WordPress site, just as you could register on my ExpressionEngine-powered site and be utterly unknown to any other EE-powered site.
McGehee (5664e1) — 12/20/2006 @ 1:03 pmpatterico, i’m critical of your positions some of the time, other times i agree with you.
assistant devil's advocate (d3742b) — 12/20/2006 @ 8:15 pmi’ve never been critical of you personally. i have made digs at your apparent oversubscription of your time (prosecutor, blogger, music critic, devoted father…cook!). this should not be interpreted as a personal attack. if you like, you’re welcome to chalk it up to envy of your extraordinary dynamism.
i think you should hire a media agent, because you’re a major media property waiting to happen. i’m sure you think the blogosphere is already major media, but it still isn’t as big as tv.
anticipating your first objection to this “i’m not goodlooking enough” sure you are. just look at all the other talking heads. you can do this, it will enable you to retire from prosecution, make more money and spend more time with your kids.