Time’s McGirk Wanted To Call Haditha “A Massacre”

New York Observer/Sweetness & Light ^ | June 5, 2006 | N/A

[Sam Hill]

This is a brief excerpt from the (it's so left it's pink) New York Observer:

Reporter Tim McGirk in the Mazlak Camp in Afghanistan.

The Devil Goes Gaga

By Gabriel Sherman

Neither “Haditha” nor “Massacre” appeared on the cover of the March 27 Time, which broke the news of the slayings of civilians. That scoop, which led the way for investigations by The New York Times and other major outlets, was flagged with a milder “Was Iraq Worth It?” on the front. The bigger question on the cover was “Are Kids Too Wired for Their Own Good?”, accompanying a soft-news photo illustration of a boy with three cell phones, a Treo and an iPod orbiting his head.

“At the time, I knew if the allegations turned out to be true, then it was clear this would be a story of significance,” Mr. Kelly said. “We put [Haditha] in the context of Iraq three years later, and we knew what we could talk about at the time was not a 10-page story …. If you’re going to do it as a cover, you need that kind of weight. We gave it the space it deserved at the time.”

Time correspondent Tim McGirk, who broke the Haditha story, said that in the weeks before publication, he had lobbied editors to use the word “massacre” in the March 27 story.

“That was a battle I lost,” Mr. McGirk said by phone May 30 from Jerusalem, where he is currently based. “I think the editors felt ‘massacre’ was too heavy of a word. They didn’t want to use it; they felt there was some justification for what had happened.”

“I think it was definitely a massacre,” Mr. McGirk said.

Has the Haditha story helped push Time back toward hard news, after swinging toward soft stories and trend pieces?

“I never took that charge seriously,” Mr. Kelly said. “Ever since 9/11, I put out a magazine that tried to make people understand better the world that was created by 9/11.”

“It was nonsense, that lifestyle tag,” Mr. Kelly said. “If this is a lifestyle magazine, I don’t know whose lifestyle it is.”

You see Tim McGirk knew it was a massacre.

He has a videotape and emails from his unbiased sources to prove it.

[Sam Hill]

Thanks to the relentless researcher KCVL for the heads up on this blurb.

[Sam Hill]

More on McGirk.

[P-40]

Thanks to Michael Savage also. :)

[jazusamo]

What a sad piece of work McGirk is. He's about as unbiased as his "unbiased sources" who seem to be America hating insurgents.

[Sam Hill]

Yep:

Haditha Reporter’s Thanksgiving With The Taliban | Sweetness & Light
http://www.sweetness-light.com/archive/times-haditha-reporter-had-thanksgiving-2001-with-taliban

[Vn_survivor_67-68]

Time's arabic "reporter" who gets neglected all too often is "Bobby" Aparisim Ghosh, who ALWAYS has a line to terrorists, insurgents, suicide bombers, etc.....

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=Bobby+APARISIM+GHOSH+iraq&btnG=Search

[A Cyrenian]

After seeing all of this bias and false reporting, I am beginning to wonder if what I heard about Vietnam was mostly fabicated reporting as well.

How can you tell when a liar is telling the truth?

[Sam Hill]

You are exactly right. And it would seem that the Time story never got going until Ghosh got involved.

From Time Magazine:

In early February, McGirk presented this evidence to, and asked for comment from, Lieut. Colonel Barry Johnson, U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad. Johnson viewed the VCD, listened to the accounts and responded straightforwardly, "I think there’s enough here for a full and formal investigation." Army Colonel Gregory Watt was dispatched to Haditha to conduct a three-week probe in which he interviewed Marines, survivors and doctors at the morgue.

At that point, TIME’s Aparisim Ghosh joined the efforts in Baghdad, asking the U.S. military for more information even as the preliminary investigation was continuing. Lacking any official U.S. response to the allegations, TIME chose not to publish an article on the episode in Haditha based solely on the eyewitnesses’ accounts. On March 14, a U.S. military official in Baghdad familiar with the Watt probe finally responded to Ghosh. According to the official, the probe concluded that the civilians were in fact killed by Marines and not by an insurgent’s bomb–but that the deaths appeared to be the result of "collateral damage" rather than malicious intent. Nevertheless, the official told Ghosh, the matter had been handed over to a criminal investigation.

Over the next five days, the reporting by McGirk and Ghosh continued to be reviewed by TIME editors and Pentagon correspondent Sally B. Donnelly. TIME’s story "One Morning in Haditha" was published on March 19 on TIME.com and appeared the next day in the print magazine (which carried a March 27 cover date).

And as you say, it's clear from just the most cursory Google that Ghosh has his own America-hating terrorist-loving agenda.

[Vn_survivor_67-68]

McGirks head would roll over there without Ghosh holding his hand.....I HOPE Ghosh is being looked at by HUMINT and SIGINT folks. In this interview, he brags to AMY GOODMAN on how he personally developed the stink about this matter:

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/21/1418210&mode=thread&tid=25

(scroll down 25% to interview)

[mewzilla]

“I think it was definitely a massacre,” Mr. McGirk said.

Well, no sense in waiting since the facts might get in his way.

Did this guy get his degree from Joseph Goebbels U?

[jazusamo]

Haditha Reporter’s Thanksgiving With The Taliban

Nothing like getting to know the enemy so you can give an unbiased report on them. /sarc

[MrCruncher]

bump

[Sam Hill]

Here is a very telling interview Ghosh did with the Communist propagandist Amy Goodman on taxpayer-supported Democracy Now:

Democracy Now! | Videotape Forces Pentagon to Investigate Claims U.S. Marines Shot Dead 15 Iraqi Civilians in Apparent Revenge Killings
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/21/1418210&mode=thread&tid=25

In it, he misrepresents the source of the video, Taher Thabet, calling him "young" when he is 43, and not mentioning that he is in fact the "Hammurabi Human Rights."

Ghosh says he can't reveal his name because he would be in danger. Even though that no longer seems to be true. And almost certainly never was, since he lives in the Sunni terrorist controlled Haditha.

Ghosh also seems to be able to see everything from this very brief videotape. And everything he sees supports the claims of the terrorists. (Such as his claim that there are no bullet holes on the outside of the houses.)

[Sam Hill]

LOL. That's what I get for taking so long with my posts.

GMTA.

[bray]

The only massacre is the one that PravdABDNC is doing to our Marines. After they are found innocent is Slime Mag going to apologize on the Cover?

Pray for W and Our Freedom Fighters

[I'm ALL Right!]

"They didn’t want to use it; they felt there was some justification for what had happened.”

[Sam Hill]

That kind of jumps out, doesn't it.

Also, McGirk was transferred out of Iraq to Jerusalem not too long after this story.

I wonder if it was a promotion or a demotion.

[Enchante]

"I wonder if it was a promotion or a demotion"

I'm pretty sure it was a promotion - one article referred to him as the new "Bureau Chief" in Jerusalem. Slime US Marines, get promoted..... it's the MSM way.

[Thebaddog]

Was it only the fellow's word and videos in play until the military guy said that there was enough for an investigation? Who do you know to trust so far after the fact. And it really seems that Time had bupkis until the military guy made his comment.

[Sam Hill]

I'm sure you also caught Ghosh's paean to a (real life) suicide bomber:

Inside the Mind of an Iraqi Suicide Bomber
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9327.htm

"One day soon, this somber young man plans to offer up a final prayer and then blow himself up along with as many U.S. or Iraqi soldiers as he can reach. Marwan Abu Ubeida says he has been training for months to carry out a suicide mission. He doesn't know when or where he will be ordered to climb into a bomb-laden vehicle or strap on an explosives-filled vest but says he is eager for the moment to come."

So touching.