No Bias In The News...

[Annie]

For once, CBS didn't jump the shark, but the bias is still rampant from those 'creating' the stories:

http://talismangate.blogspot.com/2007/01/interesting-controversy-surrounding.html

Friday, January 26, 2007
Interesting Controversy Surrounding CBS’s Lara Logan

You can read all the details here on IraqSlogger.com (...an anti-Bush website).

What I'm interested in is the footage of dead Iraqi soldiers that Lara Logan claims was “obtained by CBS.” But this footage was first released by Al-Qaeda!

Al-Qaeda’s Islamic State of Iraq released 8 minutes of cell phone footage through its media arm, the Al-Furqan Institute for Media Productions, under the title ‘Some of the Casualties of the Heretics in Haifa Street After Sunday’s Fighting, January 7, 2007, in Baghdad.’ The grainy images were of six or seven bodies wearing Iraqi military fatigues with ‘carry-out’ lunch boxes strewn about them. The images were probably taken by a cell phone, judging by quality. In one scene, a close up is shown of a soldier shot through the head, probably executed.
...

The footage “obtained by CBS” is identical to that put out by Al-Qaeda. But Logan makes no mention of Al-Qaeda’s video and does not address the implication that the footage she used was off an Al-Qaeda video. And if it’s not off the Al-Qaeda video, then how did she get footage identical to the one used by Al-Qaeda? This needs to be explained.

Furthermore, and this is the most damning indication of journalistic incompetence, Logan makes no mention about the affiliation of these insurgents fighting on Haifa Street. Not even the slightest mention is made that Al-Qaeda is taking credit for the fighting there. ...

It would seem that the Al-Furqan propagandists exhibited more journalistic accuracy than CBS News on this count.

posted by Nibras Kazimi نبراس الكاظمي at 2:52 PM

There are some clips from the al queda video for comparison, here:

http://alphabetcity.blogspot.com/2007/01/video-battle-for-haifa-street-too.html

 

[Annie]

This is now screaming across the blogosphere, for good reason. My guess is that before long, poor Laura is going to be looking for another position.

Interestings comments at Blackfive:

http://www.blackfive.net/main/2007/01/cbs_uses_al_qae.html

For a more balanced look than you can find on the tube here are a few bloggers that have embedded:

http://www.michaelyon-online.com/wp/desolate-roads-part-one.htm

http://www.michaelyon-online.com/wp/desolate-roads-part-2-of-2.htm

http://www.counterterrorismblog.org/foundation_afghanistan-embed.php

http://www.counterterrorismblog.org/foundation_iraq-embed.php

http://www.indcjournal.com/archives/002938.php

 

[Annie]

Something that ties up the two pretty well:

Links to the online CBS report and al queda film and more:

http://newsbusters.org/node/10469

CBS Report Uses al Qaeda Propaganda Film, Claims It's 'CBS Obtained'
Posted by Warner Todd Huston on January 29, 2007 - 03:31.

So, here is a question: Why is CBS using propaganda film originally posted on an al Qaeda website and claiming it is merely "CBS obtained" with no mention of the actual source for Lara Logan's report on The "Battle of Haifa Street"?

The anti-Iraq website called Iraqslogger posted a story about how CBS reporter Lara Logan is crying that CBS seems to have spiked her "Haifa Street" story. Logan has sent out a mass email to all her friends and colleagues in the world of journalism in hopes that they will pressure CBS to show her report that has not yet made it to TV. It has, though, appeared on the internet.

In her email, Logan claims that this story is "largely being ignored" and she asks for her pals to email CBS to get them to air it. But she urged supporters not to mention her "request" to pressure the network to air the piece if they did so. I guess she feels like begging is unseemly.... even though she is doing it anyway.

But, Iraq watcher, Nibras Kazimi a Visiting Scholar at the Hudson Institute in Washington DC., noticed something strange about Logan's piece.

Kazimi seems to have discovered that some of the film in Logan's piece is the exact footage that first appeared on an al Qaeda sponsored website. Yet during the CBS piece they claim is is just "footage obtained by CBS" and they do not mention its original appearance on the al Qaeda site.

Says Kazimi:

Al-Qaeda’s Islamic State of Iraq released 8 minutes of cell phone footage through its media arm, the Al-Furqan Institute for Media Productions, under the title ‘Some of the Casualties of the Heretics in Haifa Street After Sunday’s Fighting, January 7, 2007, in Baghdad.’ The grainy images were of six or seven bodies wearing Iraqi military fatigues with ‘carry-out’ lunch boxes strewn about them.
​

So, the big question is, why is CBS not telling viewers that the film used is al Qaeda propaganda? And, further, why don't they mention that this fighting was claimed by al Qaeda as their handiwork? Why does CBS just call the fighters "insurgents"?

Worse, the piece contains a purported civilian denouncing the Americans. This so-called man on the street also does not mention al Qaeda's participation in the fighting.

Does CBS have enough friendly contact with al Qaeda to get their video and propaganda? If so, why don't they tell us this is so? Why the smoke screen with the film being benignly termed "CBS obtained"? Why the refusal to mention al Qaeda at all?

Are they trying to somehow screen al Qaeda's work from the American people?

I have seen the video and it sure looks the same to me.

You be the judge:

View CBS report here

Download al Qaeda video here

Update:
I am getting reports that the CBS link is not playing well, now. Maybe they have taken it down or maybe there are too many requests?

 

[Roopull]

Al-Jazeera has less bias than CBS. CBS clearly has an agenda. I don't doubt that Al-Jazeera does as well, but since it doesn't mesh with the liberal mass media, you get a much more balanced view of the world from their website & TV station. Really... I'm not kidding. Where there is bias is in their editorials & cartoons, but I think that's where bias belongs... not in what is reported or how it is reported.

So, the big question is, why is CBS not telling viewers that the film used is al Qaeda propaganda? And, further, why don't they mention that this fighting was claimed by al Qaeda as their handiwork? Why does CBS just call the fighters "insurgents"?

I think the answers to those questions are quite clear. Admitting that Al Qaeda is in Iraq would be viewed as backing up what Bush has been saying about any "redeployment" being worse for America than staying & finishing the job. Likewise, "insurgents" is a media-invented phrase that is practically meaningless... vagueness is the new clarity.


As always, excellent posts, Kathianne.

 

[eots]

it was ALL-CIA- DUH.......and thats all i got to say bout that

 

[Eightball]

it was ALL-CIA- DUH.......and thats all i got to say bout that

Uh Huh..........?