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Jul 20, 2006

The MSM: Always happy to not give you the answer 

As News Busters points out, and a Google News search confirms, at the time of this post FoxNews is the only one reporting this story.

Marine Cleared in Shooting Death of Iraq Ambassador's Relative

Did I, or did I not, say that we'd be seeing bunches of these "atrocity" stories and that better than 99.9999% of them would turn out to be false? Here's a hint: I DID. And not only was this story crap, it was complete crap - so worthless, in fact, that it was even unsubstantiated by the accuser himself, a man who was not there, did not witness anything, and who made the claim based on nothing more than his "believing" it had to be true. Seriously. I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried.

The accusation:
BLITZER: But even months before the incident in November, you lost a cousin at Haditha in a separate battle involving United States Marines.

SUMAIDAIE: Well, that was not a battle at all. Marines were doing house-to-house searches, and they went into the house of my cousin. He opened the door for them.

His mother, his siblings were there. He led them into the bedroom of his father. And there he was shot.

BLITZER: Who shot him?

SUMAIDAIE: A member of the Marines.

BLITZER: Why did they shoot him?

SUMAIDAIE: Well, they said that they shot him in self-defense. I find that hard to believe because, A, he is not at all a violent -- I mean, I know the boy. He was [in] a second-year engineering course in the university. Nothing to do with violence. All his life has been studies and intellectual work.

Totally unbelievable. And, in fact, they had no weapon in the house. They had one weapon which belonged to the school where his father was a headmaster. And it had no ammunition in it. And he led them into the room to show it to them.

BLITZER: So what you're suggesting, your cousin was killed in cold blood, is that what you're saying, by United States Marines?

SUMAIDAIE: I believe he was killed intentionally. I believe that he was killed unnecessarily.
He was killed intentionally? You're damn right he was! The reality:
Maj, Douglas Powell, a U.S. military spokesman, said the Naval Criminal Investigative Service determined that the Marine "acted properly in self defense in response to unexpectedly encountering a man pointing an AK-47 at him."(emphasis mine - Mike)
So, the ambassador of our newest ally makes charges that we're mindless killers, which are - of course - seized upon by the press. Then, when these charges are proven to be completely without foundation… silence.

I understand that the news operates on a cycle. I understand the concept of the "flavor of the month" when it comes to stories. And I understand that Israel is this month's flavor. But with the vast options nowadays to push information to the people, be it print, television, radio, or internet, ONLY ONE story - ONLINE - about this has been put out in the last 24 hours.

ONE.

I watch news all day. I haven't seen this. I listen to radio news most of the day. I haven't heard this. I surf internet news sites at work constantly... nada.

How hard is it to lay the crap question to rest once you have a legitimate answer? Apparently, according to the MSM, the whole thing was a figment of your imagination… there was no answer. So the only thing that will linger in the public consciousness will be the question itself.

Oh, and I just realized this is an AP story, so it's not like all the media behemoths haven't seen it. Go ahead… ask me if I'm surprised...

UPDATE - Noon, 23 July: The story has been out on the wires for 4 DAYS. No further dissemination than FoxNews, according to the Google News search. In fact, if you go to Yahoo News and put in the same search, you don't even get THAT story. Just awesome...
Posted by: Mike the Marine / 17:09
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