MSM/DNC Outed for Gullibility

[Annie]

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/ne...51DC19D72A063D2F862570B00067A5B7?OpenDocument

Is Jimmy Massey telling the truth about Iraq?
By Ron Harris
POST-DISPATCH WASHINGTON BUREAU
Saturday, Nov. 05 2005

WASHINGTON

For more than a year, former Marine Staff Sgt. Jimmy Massey has been telling
anybody who will listen about the atrocities that he and other Marines
committed in Iraq.

In scores of newspaper, magazine and broadcast stories, at a Canadian
immigration hearing and in numerous speeches across the country, Massey has
told how he and other Marines recklessly, sometimes intentionally, killed
dozens of innocent Iraqi civilians.

Among his claims:

Marines fired on and killed peaceful Iraqi protesters.

Americans shot a 4-year-old Iraqi girl in the head.

A tractor-trailer was filled with the bodies of civilian men, women and
children killed by American artillery.

Massey's claims have gained him celebrity. Last month, Massey's
book, "Kill, Kill, Kill," was released in France. His allegations have been
reported in nationwide publications such as Vanity Fair and USA Today, as well as numerous broadcast reports. Earlier this year, he joined the anti-war bus tour of Cindy Sheehan, and he's spoken at Cornell and Syracuse universities, among others.

News organizations worldwide published or broadcast Massey's claims without any corroboration and in most cases without investigation. Outside of the Marines, almost no one has seriously questioned whether Massey, a 12-year veteran who was honorably discharged, was telling the truth.

He wasn't.

Each of his claims is either demonstrably false or exaggerated - according to
his fellow Marines, Massey's own admissions, and the five journalists who were embedded with Massey's unit, including a reporter and photographer from the Post-Dispatch and reporters from The Associated Press and The Wall Street Journal...[/QUOTE

How could they be so snookered? Seems they found a psychoblues and ran with the ramblings...

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/ne...56CC420E23027E0D862570B0007200BC?OpenDocument

WASHINGTON

Media outlets throughout the world have reported Jimmy Massey's claims of war crimes, frequently without ever seeking to verify them.

For instance, no one ever called any of the five journalists who were embedded with Massey's battalion to ask him or her about his claims.

The Associated Press, which serves more than 8,500 newspaper, radio and
television stations worldwide, wrote three stories about Massey, including an
interview with him in October about his new book.

But none of the AP reporters ever called Ravi Nessman, an Associated Press
reporter who was embedded with Massey's unit. Nessman wrote more than 30
stories about the unit from the beginning of the war until April 15, after
Baghdad had fallen.

Jack Stokes, a spokesman for the AP, said he didn't know why the reporters
didn't talk to Nessman, nor could he explain why the AP ran stories without
seeking a response from the Marine Corps. The organization also refused to
allow Nessman to be interviewed for this story.

Some media did seek out comment from the Marine Corps and were told that an investigation of Massey's accusations had found them baseless. Still, those
news outlets printed Massey's claims without any evidence other than the word of Massey, who had been released from service because of depression and post traumatic stress disorder...