I find this very hard to credit.

Mr. Enderlin must surely have been misquoted or misunderstood. After all if this 'story' were to be true then the 'media' would in effect be nothing but a gigantic propaganda machine. Designed to shove a particular TRUTH down the throats of their captive audiences and not overly concerned with the methods used to accomplish the goal.

Who is going to believe that ? The idea is outlandish on its face. I scoff.
-------------------------------------------------
KURTZ - "Robin Wright, should (the) decline in Iraq casualties have gotten more media attention?"
WRIGHT - "Not necessarily. The fact is we're at the beginning of a trend -- and it's not even sure that it is a trend yet. There is also an enormous dispute over how to count the numbers. There are 'different' kinds of deaths in Iraq."
"But that's the problem, we don't know whether it is a trend about specifically the decline in the number of U.S. troops being killed in Iraq. This is not enduring progress."
KURTZ: But let's say that the figures had shown that casualties were going up for U.S. soldiers and going up for Iraqi civilians. I think that would have made some front pages.
STARR: Oh, I think inevitably it would have. I mean, that's certainly -- that, by any definition, is news."
--------------------------------------------------

Posted by: dougf at January 19, 2008 6:36 AM

It's okay for al-Reuters cameramen to carry around bags of children's toys for props in their photos of "war atrocities." I don't see how this is so much different. The same goes for using Photoshop to edit a photo to make it seem more dramatic. Likewise, it must be okay for an al-Reuters reporter to cooperate with terrorists in order to get footage of their attacks in Iraq in order to document the conflict (certainly not to help their propaganda efforts!).

I can only conclude that these are acceptable practices for highly-trained members of the journalism profession among a well known news organization. Otherwise, why would a highly respected organization such as al-Reuters do them as a matter of policy? And surely it is a matter of policy when it occurs so often.

In regard to Arafat, did he die as a billionaire or just a multi-millionaire, while "his people" lived in poverty?

Posted by: Saint in Exile at January 19, 2008 7:49 AM

I swear on my family that I will never be a part of something like this and will immediately blow the whistle if I witness it in person.

We know, that's why we keep coming back to read your articles. You're one of very few who can say something like that.

Enderlin, on the other hand, seems to have knowingly publicized all sorts of lies. I'm sure he thinks he's too powerful to be brought down, but so did Dan Rather.

Posted by: maryatexitzero at January 19, 2008 10:06 AM

Michael,

NRP's Terry Gross recently interviewed a wide range of commentators on whether the American military should stay in Iraq (and if so for how long) or go. Here's her interview with Lt. Col. John Nagl, who argues that we need to accept the fact that we will be in Iraq in fairly sizeable numbers for the next ten to twenty years.

Interview with Lt. Col. John Nagl.

Iraqi-American blogger Mojo has created a nice-looking blog entry with all the individuals interviewed and links to each conversation with Terry Gross.

When should the US get out of Iraq?

*

Posted by: Jeffrey at January 19, 2008 10:19 AM

In regard to Arafat, did he die as a billionaire or just a multi-millionaire, while “his people” lived in poverty?
-Saine in Exile

Could be either, but I'd bet on 'billionaire'.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1146032,00.html

[...]

The EU's concerns arise mainly from an audit of the authority's finances carried out last year by the International Monetary Fund. In September 2003 the chief auditor, Karim Nashashibi, alleged at a press conference in Dubai that as much as $900m had been diverted between 1995 and 2000 into "a special account controlled by Yasser Arafat".

[...]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suha_Arafat#Financial_dealings

[...]

Suha came from an affluent Palestinian family, which had both money and fame, and had a rich husband who amassed an enormous fortune. There are reports that the Palestinian Authority agreed to pay Suha $100,000 a month out of the PA budget. Suha has not denied receiving the money. Because almost all of the assets of the PA and the PLO were controlled by Arafat and actually held in his name personally it is thought that the PA's concession to Suha (the large monthly payment) was in return for her agreement not to demand a share of Arafat's wealth as an inheritance for her and her daughter.

[...]

Posted by: rosignol at January 19, 2008 10:45 AM

Medias bias has so tainted my perception of news gathering that I immediately disregard 99.9% of everything I read (or don't read).

Re: Terry Gross

Perfect example of the entrenched old media. Should everything Gross produces be disregarded? Probably not. My first reaction is .. screw her and her tired old 60's lefty narrative.. second thought is.. how flippin long has Gross been employed by PBS/NPR?. Heck we got rid of LBJ, Nixon, Reagan, Clinton, Bush#1 and Bush#2 but are forever stuck with people like Gross?

Oh, and I don't give a shyte if this is fair or not.. its just how I feel about it.

PS: Terry Gross started out in public radio in 1973, at WBFO in Buffalo.

O M Gawd.

Posted by: 13times at January 19, 2008 11:05 AM

Agree about Ms. Gross being quite the socialist/leftist, though that was true of most of the people who with NPR/Public Radio in the early days.

Terry is, or at least was, an excellent interviewer; as long as she was able to keep her politics out of the equation.

Posted by: rsnyder at January 19, 2008 11:56 AM

13 Times,

I don't disagree with you about Terry Gross, but the conversations themselves, which run from about six to twelve minutes, offer a wide range of opinions from people like Kanan Makiya, to Peter Galbraith, to Lawrence Wright and Lt. Col John Nagl. If you're curious, check out the link to Mojo's blog entry, which will allow you to pick and choose who you would like to hear from.

*

Posted by: Jeffrey at January 19, 2008 12:35 PM

Michael,

I lost faith with the “Main Stream Media” in general and NPR in particular during the 1994 budget battles. I finally noted how they were choosing what to report in order to provide me with a distorted picture of what was going on. They were trying to control my opinions by telling me half truths, distortions, and out and out lies. They betrayed my trust.

I trust your reporting and that’s why I send you money. In this life, an individual’s integrity and the trust that engenders is a valuable commodity.

Keep up the good work. There are many here that trust you.

Regards,

Steamboat Jack

Posted by: Steamboat Jack at January 20, 2008 8:51 AM

I don't always agree with your analysis, but I know you report what you see and I've always appreciated that.

Posted by: ProtestShooter at January 20, 2008 9:36 AM

I remember when Gross was local to Philadelphia and each show (every weekday!) was 3 hours long. Each hour she interviewed a different person. Talk about in-depth. They were great. then the show got shorter and more slick and now it's mostly hip culture sound-bites.

I find as that happened her politics became more evident. When the interviews were longer she had to be more in the interviewee's world, as it were.

Posted by: Yehudit at January 21, 2008 11:05 PM

I just clicked on the link for the images and clicked on them to send those sites the corrected information. For some of them, however, I couldn't find a 'contact' link! A couple already had the new story!

Posted by: TeachESL at January 23, 2008 6:14 AM

Hm, by end of Feb. you'll be over the 5 million hit mark, I think.

Because your regular readers believe you more than we believe most other MSM ...
AND because you're such a great writer.

Many bloggers would claim to also not spin -- but none seem as adept at telling it how they see it as belieably as you.

Thanks for your great work -- please do more writing soon! (But save enough energy for lots of kissing of your wife, too!)

Posted by: Tom Grey - Liberty Dad at January 23, 2008 10:31 AM