... if if Mark Tapscott's words are any indication:
What AP appears not to grasp is that the most serious questions about its credibility are already in the minds of millions of people, thanks in part to the bloggers, but also to the few mainstream media organizations that have covered the growing controversy.
What is most puzzling about the AP reaction is its failure to do the one thing that would instantly put the critics in their place - produce Capt. Jamil Hussein. If he is in fact an Iraqi police captain, it is impossible to understand why he cannot be produced and his credentials verified.
"Captain Jamil Hussein" is but one of 14 Iraqi-sounding names of sources quoted by AP that U.S. military officials say cannot be verified as credible sources.
The present controversy over AP's source was preceded by the "fauxtography" scandal earlier this year when U.S. bloggers unmasked a Reuters stringer/photographer who was staging and doctoring "news" photos during the Hezbollah war against Israel from Lebanon.
To its credit, Reuters fired the offending photographer and Reuters' CEO admitted in an interview on CNN that he feared doctored news photos are in widespread use because it is virtually impossible to detect "manipulated images and staged images."
So it is no wonder that people hear that “Captain Jamil Hussein” seems not to exist and wonder if news sources can be manipulated and staged much like news photos.
Thanks to a reporter at The New York Times, the controversy is not likely to go away. Tom Zeller said "it is important to find out if this really happened in order to separate the hyperbole from the merely horrible."
In other words, Zeller seems unconvinced that the story reported by AP of six Sunnis being horribly burned ever actually took place. Zeller also noted in a separate post on his blog that a Times colleague in Iraq was unable to verify the story and in fact cast serious doubt on its legitimacy. A Time magazine correspondent also was unable to confirm the story, describing the burnings as “alleged.”
Remember two years ago when bloggers raised questions about a "60 Minutes" segment led by CBS News Anchor Dan Rather? The segment was based on documents provided under strange circumstances by a mysterious source who has never been identified. Rather said the documents suggested President Bush received favored treatment by the National Guard in order to avoid service in Vietnam.
Within hours of the “60 Minutes” broadcast, however, bloggers were uncovering persuasive evidence that the documents were almost certainly forgeries. CBS convened an investigation by former AP President Lou Boccardi and former U.S. ATtorney-General Dick Thornburgh. Boccardi and Thornburgh were unable to verify the documents. Rather retired.
It's time for AP to take the same sort of approach to resolve the Captain Jamil Hussein controversy. But there is one big difference between the present issue and the Dan Rather/"60 Minutes" ordeal - AP provides news to virtually every daily newspaper in America. AP is a cornerstone of the mainstream media. If AP's credibiilty is harmed, every news organization that uses its products also suffers.
Thus, AP should ask the American Society of Newspaper Editors to oversee the appointment and conduct of an independent panel of respected journalists and outside evidentiary experts to determine the truth behind Captain Jamil Hussein and all other sources similarly in doubt.
To allow this controversy to continue to fester without taking decisive actions to resolve it to everybody's satisfaction could be disastrous for journalists everywhere.
Disastrous? For biased journalists suffering from Bush Derangement Syndrome who are doing their level best to aid and abet the enemy... we can only hope.
MORE: Via Patterico, this link to a brief mention in US News and World Report:
AP Accused Of Fabricating Iraq Stories
In a column for the Boston Herald, Jules Crittenden wrote that the AP "is embroiled in a scandal. Conservative bloggers, the new media watchdogs, lifted a rock at the AP. ... The AP is making up war crimes. But the resulting stink in the blogosphere has barely wrinkled a nose in the mainstream press." Crittenden goes on to allege that "oft-quoted" Iraqi police captain Jamil Hussein "does not exist." According to Crittenden, the Iraqi police and the US military claim the atrocities Hussein is said to have witnessed, including an incident in which Iraqi soldiers were said to have watched as six Sunnis were burned alive in a mosque "didn't happen."
Let's all hope this blows up but good.
AND MORE: Curt has supplied those of us doing our part in this whole thing with a little gift:
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