The Airstrike That Wasn't

Patterico's done some digging and finds that the LA Times' assertion that an "airstrike" in Ramadi killed 30 people, most of whom were women and children, has a few problems.

Like, for one thing, the Coalition denies there were any "airstrikes" that day at all, and most other media organizations reported the clash involved a tank bombardment.

And that most reports state that young men of military age were killed -- not women and children.

How did the LAT reporter get such basic information wrong?

Because he's nowhere near Ramadi. He based his report on the claims of a local stringer, who seems to be simply parroting terrorist propaganda, and furthermore is alleged by one of Patterico's serving-in-Ramadi readers to have ties to the insurgents.

Almost this entire war is being "reported" by absentee "reporters" who don't bother to leave the Green Zone. They're live fifth graders doing book reports based on Cliff's Notes, but here the Cliff's Notes are written by Al Qaeda.

posted by Ace at 04:34 PM

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