MSM propaganda watch: Ready, aim…not fired!
2006 was the Year of Cloned Smoke, Green Helmet Guy, Flat Fatima, and Pieta Man. 2007 has brought us the ascendancy of Islamic Rage Boy and now…Magic Bullet Lady:
Caption: AFP/Yahoo!News Caption: Tuesday August 14, 2007: An elderly Iraqi woman shows two bullets which she says hit her house following an early coalition forces raid in the predominantly Shiite Baghdad suburb of Sadr City. At least 175 people were slaughtered on Tuesday and more than 200 wounded when four suicide truck bombs targeted people from an ancient religious sect in northern Iraq, officials said.(AFP/Wissam al-Okaili)
Yes, the blogosphere lit up today over the above photograph (it’s still up on Yahoo!News here). If you haven’t already spotted the error, see Rocco DiPippo, Hot Air, Blackfive, Bob Owes, Jim Hoft, Snapped Shot, and LGF.
Reader DWS, one of our troops in Iraq who works in ammo inspections, e-mails me tonight:
I’m over here in Iraq right now. I’ve seen that picture of the Lady with the two unspent rounds. To me they don’t look like the stuff we use, I swear those are AK-47 rounds. I work in AMMO and I have inspected and handled thousands of 5.56mm ammo, M-16 ammo. It’s thinner than those rounds. Those aren’t even ours.
More scrutiny of the ammo question at QandO.
AFP has issued a “correction,” which Ace points out is flatly dishonest:
“CORRECTS BULLETS TO UNSPENT An elderly Iraqi woman holds up two unspent bullets at her house following an early coalition forces raid in the predominantly Shiite Baghdad suburb of Sadr City, 14 August 2007.”
Ummm… that’s not all that was corrected, AFP. The old caption said those bullets hit her house.
Now that you acknowledge they were never fired, of course you admit they could not have hit their house.
Funny how you just omitted that part without actually acknowledging your error there.
Why not just let that caption remain? The woman claimed these obviously-unfired cartridges hit her house. Why protect a liar from being exposed?
Unless, of course, you have a some interest in protecting a liar.
The woman claimed these unfired bullets hit her house. That is what she claimed, and that fact — the fact of her making that claim — remains true, unless the photograher simply made that up.
If the photographer made it up, he should be fired and AFP should admit this.
If he didn’t make it up, then the woman is a proven liar, and the evidence of her stooging for Sadr should remain on the record, rather than being whitewashed away.
And more snort-worthy mockery at Captain’s Quarters. Click for the caption:
***
AFP needs some working B.S. detectors. How about hiring a blogger or two?
***
Kate at SDA posts an ammo comparison graphic from one of her readers.
See what others have said
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- Magic Bullet Lady « Wrong Side of the Tracks
- What the Crap?
- Stop The ACLU » Blog Archive » LEFTIST MEDIA FOLLIES (1)
- Are We Lumberjacks?
- Verden Online Journal » Nyheter og Artikler - August 17, 2007
- the dissident frogman
- Mainstream Media Dishonesty - 101 Liberal Media Lies « BUUUUURRRRNING HOT
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Categories: Fauxtography
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To bad I’m shutin down for the eve, this one has the making for some laughs.
When I saw the photo and the caption, I thought it had to be a joke, because no one could be THAT stupid! Right? Well, the media proved me wrong once again. Either that, or someone is throwing bullets at houses these days.
Over at QandO, I ask the question “Are we sure those aren’t AK rounds?”
Because Dale suggests they look a lot like the rounds for the M16A1, ammo we no longer use.
Yep, unspent 5.56 mm rounds…..
Comparison: 7.62 v. 6.5 Grendal v. 5.56 US MIL Standard
….wonder if these rounds she’s holding have those square bottoms?
Those definitely are not AK rounds. US still using the 5.56 standard in the M-4 and SAW
LOL!
Wasn’t sure.
Dale suggested they were M193 rounds,and not the currently used M855 or M856 rounds since they lack something rather distinct. Anyone know what those lacking features might be?
Just checked. Not updated or corrected yet:
M193 is standard lead with copper jacket
M855 I think has a tip for improved spread on impact
M856 is tracer
Hate to weigh down the conversation from the start but this points up a larger issue that absolutely must be addressed by the American press; quite simply, they have blown it when it comes to coverage of the war.
They have to admit it first, something that they have a hard time doing. And the excuses they will give are plausible; that it is incredibly dangerous (82 journalists have died in Iraq so far), that covering a war is always a hit or miss operation at best, or that it was hard getting around the country.
The reliance on people like this photographer (and others that we suspect but don’t know about for sure) proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that the media got it wrong. Relying on stringers to give them the story, not knowing if they were enemy plants or if they had sympathies with the other side or even if they were qualified to get the pertinent facts and be honest about them is the biggest blunder in the history of the American media. It was wrong for them to cover the war in this manner and they should be told that every single day until they acknowledge it.
And of course, you put on top of this the way they see everything through an anti-military, anti-war bias and it’s easy to see how they have been taken time and time again either by enemy propoganda or not getting it right the first time.
Those of us who read the milbloggers, and the embeds like Yon, Totten, etc. know so much more about what is actually happening in Iraq than any high priced network star reporter sitting in the green zone. It may be necessary for him to do that considering the danger. But it’s a helluva way to get a war story.
Chances are, we’re going to go in to another country in our lifetimes. It would be nice if the press learned a few lessons from this war and applied them to the next one so that they don’t cover themselves in shame as they have in Iraq.
Close #9. I was talking purely cosmetic… the M855 has a green tip, the M856 an orange tip.
“…175 people were slaughtered…” (emphasis mine.) Isn’t that a pretty charged sentence? These guys will print anything.
The MSM has been so desperate the past couple of days to smear the success of the Surge. I couldn’t believe some of the headlines on Yahoo today. The fact that the Surge is going extremely well is disturbing to liberals and the MSM. They are doing ANYTHING–now even making up stories–to try to spin the news in a negative way.
It is like they are hoping for suicide bombings and deaths so that we lose in Iraq. I expect a lot more of these made up stories, because the tremendous success in Iraq the past few months is making the MSM and Democrats even more unhinged.
Correction
OK, sorry, my bad. They were talking about innocent victims of truck bombs. The term “slaughtered” probably is apt.
One round looks as if the shoulder has a much sharper taper than the other. It is hard to tell but could be two entirely different rounds.
The MSM hardly ever uses the term “slaughter.” I think you were right by questioning their use of it. It seems the only reason they are using that term now is propaganda against the Surge.
Rick Moran in #10 has it right. We can get bogged down in minutiae about green tips, red tips, civilian vs. military issue, etc., but the real issue is the pitiful lack of knowledge on display by the writer of the original caption.
I’ve grown accustomed to journalists having no clue about anything military; I’ve even come to accept that many of them are actually proud of their ignorance.
But to look at two unspent rounds and and still follow right along with the claim that they were fired goes one step beyond.
Par for the course, though: as long as the tale is one that puts our military in a bad light, most journos are only too happy to be led around by the nose.
How are we supposed to understand this conflict, not to mention win it, when we’re being “informed” by journalists like these?
Typical anti-gun Americans show their true stupidity by publishing a caption like that. Do any of them even know what a bullet looks like? Sheesh.
LAWLZ! **snaps fingers**
Sounds to me like AFP’s main operating principle is “Never let the facts get in the way of the narrative.”
On August 15th, 2007 at 11:00 pm, Gabe said:
(Aloha Guy) “OK, sorry, my bad. They were talking about innocent victims of truck bombs. The term “slaughtered” probably is apt.”
“The MSM hardly ever uses the term “slaughter.” I think you were right by questioning their use of it. It seems the only reason they are using that term now is propaganda against the Surge.”
Well, I think cutting the article at that exact point in the caption has to be on purpose. Think about it….people just browsing through during the day reading just the caption and not clicking-through to see the entire article…may, just may, sort of get the impression the 175 “slaughtered” people died at the hands of coalition forces during the raid. hmmmm, maybe it’s just me though.
I put up a post about this today also with plenty of photoshops. The whole thing is just such an obvious crock:
whatthecrap.us
http://whatthecrap.wordpress.com/2007/08/15/two-bullets-in-the-hand-one-big-crock-of-bull/
The last one has the most true caption though:
Here “elderly Iraqi woman” also can be translated, “Lying Falsehood McFibber.”
Rick,
I agree that it is difficult for the media to cover a guerrilla war, but I also think their misrepresentations are intentional because they are anti-American.
And, folks, you’ve got to follow the link at Captain’s Quarters! Hilarious.
Maybe their guns don’t work anymore, so they had to resort to throwing the ammo at the civilians.
On August 16th, 2007 at 12:38 am, JConrad999 said:
msm wants to show how really desperate the situation has become.
#12/14 & #16 & #21~
Also, the woman with the bullets in in Sadr City, a Baghdad suburb. The slaughter (yes, that’s what it was - the general in charge in that area called it genocide) took place far from Sadr City, near Mosul in northern Iraq. And the victims of that slaughter aren’t Muslims OR Christians - they are of a sect (Yazeti? not sure on the spelling…)that predates both of those religious groups, and they have not really been involved in the insurgency and keep to themselves. Thoughts on why they were targeted? Because they were an easy target. If we leave Iraq, we can expect to see more of this.
This woman is a skidmark on the panties of Islam
Here’s my Photoshopped entry…
http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/9152/afpblahts6.jpg
Isn’t that the same unlucky lady who had had two different apartments blown up last year?
Looks like they will try the old (magic bullet theory)on everyone.It worked for awhile.
I agree with #10 and #17 about the stupidity of the writer and editors on the overall false aspects of this story …
however … as to the technical aspects of the “bullets” themselves … it is am important point …
most people have no idea what the differences are between types of ammunition … they have no clue what 5.56 or 7.62 or .45 or .357 means … (btw … the military would never refer to “bullets” … it would refer to “rounds” of ammunition) …
the specifics of these inconsistencies being pointed out by the knowledgeable commenters here is no different than experienced photoshop users pointing out all the “faux-tography” discrepancies of last year …
I think it is an important piece of the information needed to discredit yet another bogus story from the MSM …
Also, I agree that many people simply scan the print media headlines and don’t ever read an entire story … that is why the NYT has so many of the pertinent facts that refute their headline buried in the last paragraphs of the story …
after a second look at the picture… the entire pic looks like it could have been photoshopped.. is that a some old stock photo of an old woman and some random withered hand holding 2 bullets?
If those rounds hit her house, it must be more terrorism by the coalition. Maybe our side has decided to just throw rounds at people as a warning. (Where is the ’sarcasm off’ button?)
Are you thinking Lebanon, the old lady with her arms spread lamenting that Israeli troops blew up her house? Could is be AFP pulled a Reuters?
I dunno. I refused to even blog this yesterday. I did A LOT of reading others blogs and placed comments around and was completely entertained by some of the TOP bloggers.
Try it sometime. The nuances and the “hard-to-see” sarcasm and utter contempt of the Hate America authors is astoundingly too much to take sometimes.
The laughter I was embroiled in STILL hurts ye ole belly!!
Keep up the good work and apply even more pressure exposing these *******X10 “people”.
It does this DAV’s heart good.
I especially liked the comment someone stated…”they must have thrown the bullets at her house.”
ROFLMAO!!
I’m certainly no expert, but those rounds look like they were photoshopped into her hands to me.
And wouldn’t anyone who has probably seen as much war as this woman know the difference between a spent and used round?
Heavens to Murgatroyd!
This may sound terribly obvious but if stuff like this that’s clearly, absurdly false makes it through their “rigorous fact-checking”, I don’t think bloggers find 100% of the errors, so what percentage of the news do you think is sloppily done or factually incorrect?
Just another example of abuse by the MSM.
MSNBC Newsroom Booed Bush State of the Union
By Mark Finkelstein | August 16, 2007 - 06:36 ET
UPDATE: Joe and Mika discuss this NB item. See below.
Joe Scarborough has pulled back the curtain on the liberal bias at MSNBC, describing an incident in which people in its newsroom ceaselessly booed President Bush during a State of the Union address.
The revelation came on “Morning Joe” today at 6:02 A.M. EDT. Joe was discussing a recent episode at the Seattle Times in which reporters and editors cheered the news that Karl Rove had resigned. Scarborough applauded Seattle Times Executive Editor Dave Boardman for issuing a memorandum reproving his colleagues. For more, read NB items by Brent Baker and Ken Shepherd.
Joe went on to describe a similar incident at MSNBC.
View video here. Note: that’s newsreader Mika Brzezinksi heard murmuring in assent, though one has to wonder just how thrilled she was by Joe’s candor in outing her fellow MSNBC liberals.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: There was a story out of Seattle, and the reason I love it is that it’s transparency in the news. You have an editor who was actually outing his own people. The Seattle Times newsroom broke into applause when Karl Rove resigned. And of course that’s bad. What I like about it is that the editor actually wrote about it and went in and told the people in the newsroom that was unacceptable.
And I’ve got to say, my first night here at MSNBC was the President’s State of the Union address in 2003, and I was shocked because there were actually people in the newsroom that were booing the president actually from the beginning to the end. And I actually talked to [NBC/MSNBC executive] Phil Griffin about it, and he said “how was it last night?” Because he was the one that called me out of the Ace Hardware store, got my vest on. He said “how was it last night?” I said “well, it’s OK, I understand it’s a little bit different up here than it is down in northwest Florida, but you had people in the newsroom actively booing the President of the United States. Phil turned red very quickly. That didn’t happen again.
Great news: the MSNBC newsroom no longer actively boos the President! But did Griffin replace any of the offenders and bring in professionals, or is MSNBC still staffed by people who simply do their booing on the inside — and in the news choices they make?
UPDATE, 8-16: At 6:48 A.M. EDT Joe and Mika discussed this item.
SCARBOROUGH: Chris [MJ producer Chris Licht] told me something in my ear during break, that we talked at 6:02 about the Seattle Times and back in 2003, back in 2003, the newsroom at MSNBC booing George Bush . . .
BRZEZINKSI: Some people, yeah [Mika wanting to make clear it wasn't unanimous.]
SCARBOROUGH: A lot of the people that were actually charged with the coverage.
BRZEZINKSI: Oh dear!
SCARBOROUGH: Yeah, that’s bad. And I talked about how Phil Griffin found out, got very angry,
BRZEZINKSI: Right, as he should.
SCARBOROUGH: And cleaned that up. That never happened again.
BRZEZINKSI: N-o-o-o.
SCARBOROUGH: And this whole place has changed an awful lot since then. But NewsBusters, already has a story at like 6:30.
BRZEZINKSI: Oh my God!
SCARBOROUGH: Ruthless efficiency!
BRZEZINKSI: I try not to look there. They don’t like me.
SCARBOROUGH: They said I pulled back the curtain. You know what? Sunlight’s the best disinfectant.
BRZEZINKSI: Darn right.
I don’t dislike Mika. I just wish she would admit the obvious: that she is a liberal Democrat who occasionally lets her bias show, and stop hiding behind the flimsy cover, as proof of her objectivity, of having a Republican brother.
True bloggers don’t find 100% of the errors, but we find enough of them to bring the mistakes to the light of day and to make people question the ID10Ts in the msm.
Does rathergate ring a bell…..(ding-dong)
#4/9/31
The issue about Americans not knowing the diffrence about the calibers of various rounds isn’t suprising since I hear alot of this ignorance at the University of Memphis.
My classmates would complain that the .50 should be banned and yet don’t have a problem with a .40 or .357 round with the diffrences being less than diameter of a standard “Daisy Red Rider” BB gun (.177 for those of you who don’t remember.
Is that the same woman that kept having her house bombed by the Israeli Air Force last summer?
If it isn’t, it could be her twin sister.
Checked yahooligans/sarc on, the photo is now gone.
Slingshot?
And liberals accuse Fox News of lying!
Well, neither a .40 S&W nor a .357 Magnum are accurate at 1000+ yards…not that it’s a reason to ban civilan access to .50 cal. ammo. Of course, the fact that .50 rifles are enormous in size and price doesn’t really lend them to criminal use.
Did I ever show you the snowball I keep in my sock drawer? It’s from the Blizzard of 78.
I ever show you my grandmother’s wedding ring? They buried her with it, but I keep it in my sock drawer with the snowball.
Maybe AFP wants to send their photographer over to take pictures…
Scott Beauchamp saw evil soldiers “hitting her house” with their ammo and then mocking her…
And then they ran over her dog with a fighter jet…
Any 10 year old country boy could look at that picture, and caption, and tell you it’s complete BS. How stupid can these lefties get?
That woman looks very familiar. Could this be the same one?
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?c=JPArticle&cid=1154525850241&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Looks like her, and the photos are a month apart, different buildings and Reuters and AP involved. All very suspect.
You can understand her grief of course, as swj points out