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July 03, 2007
Off With Their Headlines: AP, Reuters Run Stealth Retractions of DecapiGate Stories
Not actual retractions or corrections; they're not honest enough for that. But they do note that the military has called the stories "wholly fabricated" and they offer no contrary evidence or resistance to that finding, apparently wishing now to walk slowly away from the story as if it were a public fart.
Retuers offers this excuse:
Verifying reports in Iraq is very hard for journalists, who have been systematically targeted by different militant groups and rely extensively on local sources for information.
Paris-based press freedom advocates Reporters Without Borders estimate that over 180 journalists and media assistants have been killed since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, making Iraq the most dangerous place in the world to report.
Apparently if it's "very hard" to verify a story, it give the MSM license to forgo the verification process altogether and run hearsay and rumors as fact. Who knew?