The New York Times gets it wrong again
The NYT ran a story on the new Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected armored vehicles in Iraq, spotlighting the “first fatality inflicted by a roadside bomb on an MRAP.”
Milblog Badgers Forward sets the record straight:
The New York Times gets it wrong. Corporal Stephen Shannon of Company C, 397th Engineer (Task Force Pathfinder) was killed in Ramadi in January 2007 while riding in an RG-31 and of course Sergeant James Holtom, Sergeant Ross Clevenger, and Private First Class Ray Werner of Company A, 321st Engineer (Task Force Pathfinder) were killed 8 February 2007 while riding in an RG31. A Soldier form the unit we replaced had a Soldier killed while riding in an RG31 in July of 2006 and there have been several incidents of Soldiers getting killed while riding in Buffaloes.
There are other errors in the piece.
Bill Roggio, The Danger Room, Big Lizards, and Tim Sumner have more.
See what others have said
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Categories: Iraq, New York Times

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Getting it wrong at the NYT is becoming the rule rather than the exception
Exactly, Armigerous. Does the NY Times ever get it right?
It’s much more effective for the NYT’s counteroffensive if they cast the success in Iraq as a temporary invincibility achieved by the MRAP, as if technology were the story and not the men and women on the ground. Now that the terrorists have rendered our precious MRAP obsolete, the Times wants their readers to osmotically infer, violence could well rise to the levels before our temporary vehicular advantage.
It’s all hogwash, of course. The only thing that will allow violence to rise to pre-surge (and pre-MRAP fielding) levels is the Times getting their way.
The New York Times makes a habit of hiring slackers for reporters.
Well the Washingpost should take care of the nyt under new oqnship.
Perhaps the manufacture of the vehicle in question will take exception & protest the liable concerning their product…
yeah right.
I noticed the story at KVIA.com. That one is from the AP.
Is this the same thing? Or a different report.
I wasn’t aware of the NYT article till just now when I read this post.
Hmmm. Maybe some of you know – is an MRAP an RG31? If so, the error on the part of the NYT, according to Badgers Forward, is that they apparently didn’t know that there have been earlier deaths in MRAPS/RG31s, not that the MRAP/RG31 is capable of being destoyed by an IED. As someone said in the article, a big enough IED can destroy any vehicle.
But the oher take-away from the article is that the other crew members were only wounded, not killed which might have been the outcome in a HUMVEE.
May God take the Gunner, and may He protect the rest of his crew.
Even a tank crew can be killed if the IED is large enough. Trust me, I know.
As for the NY Times, this surprises you because…..
FTT
Fairy Tale Times
A liberal or a liberal rag will always take the opportunity to disparage the military. It’s genetically encoded that they’re creepy.
No, I think they wrote exactly what they wanted to write.
Fishwrap? Michelle, you’re way too kind.
New York Times=Fishcrap…”If it smells we’ll cover it”
Wouldn’t it be faster to just post the links to the stories which are accurate and unbiased?
#14 right on!
If you can find one in the mainstream media you get a cookie.
And I am not sure bloggers are going for efficiency. Sometimes, just the industry of introducing a blockquote is what their readers want. Criticizing the mainstream press is exactly one of the reasons people read MM in the first place.
The RG-31 is NOT a brand new vehicle and they have been in use for quite some time. Yes, they are more heavily armored than, say, a HMMWV, but they are susceptible to damage from a large enough device just like anything else. Stack enough AT-6’s in the road and you can destroy/compromise a lot of armored vehicles.
The Buffalo has also been in service for quite some time. Although the Buffalo IS made by Force Protection, it isn’t a “brand new MRAP”. For those who are unfamiliar with the Buffalo, one was actually used in the movie “Transformers” as the character “Bonecrusher”.
Did you really expect them to get it right?, everything that’s read in the NYT is suspect by now anyway. They probably can’t even get the classified ad’s right.
Thanks for breaking down into layman’s terms!
You don’t understand, Michelle. You simply do not understand.
This is the first American casualty inflicted by a roadside bomb on a MRAP since the New York Times became aware that MRAPs existed. Before the New York Times was aware of their existance, nothing that happened to MRAPs mattered.
You just gotta get your mind right on these things.
Oy vey (roughly means “good grief”)! You are in such a hurry to condemn the Times that you can’t even read to the bottom of the blog you quote from. If you had, you would have found:
And while you’re at it, why not mention the real Iraq story today, which you don’t dispute because it’s true. The so called milestone reconciliation law that showed political progress in Iraq was a sham.
Yeah, that makes it all better. Besides, it isn’t like the NY Times has a track record of biased reporting and lazy fact-checking.
Oh, wait.
Fishcrap is correct.
The NYT is not suitable for fishwrap, it’s only suitable for wrapping the fish crap that’s left over after you clean a fish.
The RG31 is a Cat I MRAP made by BAE Systems Land Systems of South Africa.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RG31
http://www.defense-update.com/products/r/RG-31.htm
CATEGORY II and CATEGORY III MRAPS are the ones receiving all the attention in the MSM.
I dont know how many of the CAT II and CAT III MRAPS are in Iraq/Afghanistan service at this time.
You nit pick the NYTimes while giving conservatives a pass. Do you want to read about lies from the Bush administration, which were exaggerated and amplified by Fox & co?
Seen any UFO’s lately?
Remember, fire can’t melt steel. Google it.
I read the AP (we know their accuracy track record) article – a study by 2 “two nonprofit journalism organizations” that says, typically, President Bush lied 231 times about Iraq having weapons of mass destruction out of 259 total lies told by him. Assuming WMD was a “lie” does saying it constitute 231 lies? Or one lie told 231 times? Even in your world you must have some standards of integrity.
Of course, the real problem for you (and AP, and the 2 “two nonprofit journalism organizations” is that, while WMD in the form we generally expected (e.g., nuclear) did not exist every EVERY intelligence service in the world and apparently even Saddam himself beleived he had WMD. In other words, being wrong doesn’t mean you are lying. But repeating known lies, as you are doing, is lying.
(edit) saying it 231 times constitute 231 lies?
More importantly, how is Iraq’s management of the Baath situation the ‘lead story out of Iraq’? when our men and women are still fighting for security over there?
Or is the lead story that you think Bush has lied? Because Bush lying is also not an Iraq story.
So, you admit that it is more important that Iraq create domestic trouble for a sitting U.S. president? Or are you simply confused about what is important in Iraq?
Like these “lies” printed by the WAPO and the BBC, two of the most liberal media on the planet?:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3872201.stm
and:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/13/AR2005081300530.html
WMDs were not the only reason to erradicate Hussein, but it emphasized the necessity. As an Iraq war vet, I’m damned glad the weapons were found and destroyed before Hussein could use any of them.
To not realize that Iraq is just one of the many battelgrounds against Islamofascism in the Middle East, takes a pretty heavy set of cerebral blinders; or worse, someone who’s “stuck on stupid”.
You leftwing nutburgers are pathetic.
Believe it or not NPR got this story correct this morning. They reported the MRAP as effective. The gunner who was killed was physically exposed in the turret. God bless him.
meatpieandtatters, you really need to give a little warning, before you make me spew my coffee across my desk like that! ROFL
What part of Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected don’t they understand?
The acronym isn’t MPAP.
This fear-mongering crap has got to stop!
It was “Gulf of Tonkin. Google it.”
Don’t misquote the loons or they’ll…uh…get…uh…loonier.
So it’s o.k. to quote the Pentagon’s Press Office as a reliable source when their releases support the left’s anti-war argument, and as an unreliable source when the releases support the President’s plans for Iraq (i.e., the Surge’s success)? Doesn’t this exemplify hypocracy?
CORRECTION:
Should read: “…and label them as an unreliable… .”
Sorry -
That’s why I didn’t “quote” anything. I was being sarcastic.
I’m pickin’ up what you’re puttin’ down, though.