Bilalgate: Michelle vs. the Associated Press
posted at 10:50 am on September 21, 2006 by Allahpundit
At the risk of being stripped of my righty blogger credentials, I confess that I haven’t followed this story very closely. Many of you have, though, and since the war of words has now come to a head, I thought I’d open up a thread on it.
Don’t miss today’s Vent on the subject, either.
Blowback
Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.
Trackbacks/Pings
Trackback URL
Comments
Michelle goes gangsta on the so-called “journalists” at AP.
JammieWearingFool on September 21, 2006 at 10:58 AM
Great work Michelle! Thanks for the vent, venting my vent better than I could ever vent vent.
lan astaslem on September 21, 2006 at 11:25 AM
It’s a big story and I have to say that AP’s stonewalling re Bilal Hussein fits a pattern that I experienced with them after Katrina.
That famous photo of flooded New Orleans school buses was shot by an AP stringer named Phil Coale. My co-author, Chris Regan, and I wanted to interview Coale about the shot–how he took it, what he thought when he saw the buses, etc. We worked with AP for about a week to get permission to interview him, but they denied on the grounds that they didn’t think we would be “fair.” Never mind the public’s right to know the background of that photo or the circumstances in which it was taken–AP simply ruled from on high that we wouldn’t get access. They behaved in a more heavyhanded way than nearly all of the American officials they routinely assail. AP joins FOIA requests to uncover wartime programs and secrets, yet denies access to outside reporters when it suits them. AP went on to bury that bus photo. It doesn’t show up in any of AP’s photo essays on Katrina. That’s an editorial judgement and it’s theirs to make, but to me does reveal something about AP’s position on Katrina. They published photos of stranded refugees, but buried the photo that showed why many of them were stranded.
With Hussein, AP is again burying a story it doesn’t want told, that story being that a local stringer in Iraq has allegedly strong ties to the insurgency and has skewed his coverage to benefit those ties. If a government agency behaved as AP has here, clamming up for months and releasing half-truth defenses, AP would be among the first to hint that the agency’s lack of openness and tranparency coupled with its dissembling suggest that the agency has something to hide. And that would be a reasonable suggestion.
When you add in Clarice Feldman’s story, linked on today’s Vent, about the Iraqi intel doc that mentions an Iraqi agent that works (or worked–we don’t know if the person is still there) for AP, the story is even bigger and more dangerous for AP. AP hasn’t even acknowledged that story, let alone explained it.
Put the Hussein and the Iraq intel doc stories together, and AP’s reporting from Iraq is compromised and unreliable.
Bryan on September 21, 2006 at 11:28 AM
Ultimately, this is a question of why liberals are intent upon committing cultural suicide.
Halley on September 21, 2006 at 11:44 AM
Sounds like AP is going to come after Michelle. We in the blogoshpere have to speak out. AP and Reuters stories are picked up by thousands of outlets everyday with no question as to there accuracy and bias. We should demand more from one of the most powerful forces in our country. The MSM has to be transparent and responsive to the people of this country and the world. I will never read a report from AP and Reuters without questioning it.
d1carter on September 21, 2006 at 11:45 AM
And, if AP had knowledge of Hussein’s real identity and what he was doing, then I really have to wonder if their actions might potentially be criminal.
thirteen28 on September 21, 2006 at 11:48 AM
From AP’s non-response response:
“(AP) Journalists
interview and photographare bestest buddies with murderers, child molesters, kidnappers, and, yes, even terrorists…”There, that’s better.
speed647 on September 21, 2006 at 11:56 AM
You go girl!
Valiant on September 21, 2006 at 12:12 PM
Michelle Malkin’s incendiary Sept. 20, 2006 column about Associated Press
She is umm, very incendiary, if you ask me.
The man identified as Santoro was already dead by the time anyone working for The Associated Press was brought to see him.
Then why are the
terroristsinsurgentsmilitantspersons of interest being fautographed pointing their guns at a dead man.Oh, yes. I understand. Fake but accurate.
There you can learn why AP has been asking the U.S. military to either charge or release Bilal
The fact that “detainees” will sometimes start singing like a bird has nothing to do with it, I’m sure.
As AP reported on September 17, Bilal is one of about 14,000 people held by the U.S. military as “security detainees” in a global network of overseas prisons. They have not been charged with crimes
Prisoner enemy combatants are held for the duration of the conflict, not charged with crimes, unless they have committed “war crimes”. Be careful what you wish for.
AP is insisting that the U.S. military follow accepted due process under the law and the Geneva Conventions
Me too. Be careful what you wish for.
Government officials in Iraq say the U.S. has no right to detain its citizens in this way.
We note that you don’t seem to wish to name these “officials”. Any chance that the “official” is that cheerful little guy who would have thrown Bilal into a wood chipper.
dinasour on September 21, 2006 at 12:30 PM
For most of my adult life, basically, I have taken it for granted that the AP, Reuters, and all the other “reputable” major TV network news agencies have delivered the news in a fair and -detached- manner, for the most part. Just the facts, and nothing but the facts, with little slant, for the most part. Sometimes there were what I accepted as “erroneous errors”, as they were explained away by the news agencies, but all in all I have always trusted the “trusted” news agencies, for the most part. Boy was I wrong, and they all prove it more & more each and every day.
I assume nothing about any news agencies of any caliber any longer. I have become so disgusted, so jaded about “the news”, that I can no longer trust any of them. CBS’s Rathergate, Reutersgate, The Associated Press’ bombastic drivel, CNN’s unending “oopsy” television mistakes and lies… etcetera ad nauseum! There are too many to possibly mention them all from ALL the news wires and major news networks. Suffice it to say, the print media’s just as bad… unfit to wipe my a** with!
The bias, propoganda, and the willingness for all the news agencies to air/print just about anything feasible to make a buck and further their own agenda(s) has numbed me to just about anything any of them have to say unless they’re all reporting the same thing and it’s all unanimous.
SilverStar830 on September 21, 2006 at 3:24 PM
So why don’t you all start doing what I do and call them the Enemy Press?
ScottG on September 21, 2006 at 3:33 PM
Mega Irishman cheers to Michelle, a true blue American, for having the intelligence, diligence, and backbone to take on the terrorist supporting press.
Al-AP now has a nose bleed, and if they do try to go after Michelle they will find themselves surrounded by their own readers who hate to be taken as fools.
I personally think that an investigation is warrented. ;o)
DannoJyd on September 21, 2006 at 3:43 PM
Michelle wrote:
In the other Hussein thread I specifically accused the Associated Press of aiding and abetting, i.e., TREASON.
Today I renew the charge.
Further, I call upon the US Attorney General to open a treason investigation against the Associated Press and to convene a federal grand jury to investigate the actions of the Associated Press in using a KNOWN ASSOCIATE of aterrorist, Bilal Hussein, if not an actual terrorist himself, as a reporter/photographer, and in KNOWINGLY publishing enemy propaganda in the United States while we are at war.
I call upon the US Attorney General to convene a federal grand jury to investigate whether or not the Associated Press, its staff, or its corporate board of directors, in direct violation of 18 USC 2381, has committed the crime of TREASON by aiding and abetting the enemies of the United States during a time of war by knowingly and willfully functioning as an enemy propaganda outlet.
georgej on September 21, 2006 at 4:19 PM