Posted on 02/03/2005 9:23:28 AM PST by BJungNan
News forum that caught CBS fake National Guard documents shines light on another media blunder
"I need you all to look at this photo and tell me if you think the vest is what is being issued and worn in Iraq. Also does the M-16 shown look small?" - posted on 02/01/2005 11:26:05 AM PST by Dog
"Ok, some things I'd like to point out... first, that vest, and those boots, they aren't military issue, if they are I've never seen em. Next, the mag in the M4 isn't issued I believe, it looks like a mag you would buy for civilian use." - posted on 02/01/2005 11:27:15 AM PST by BladeLWS
"Is this a hoax? The 'captured soldier' suspiciously looks like a doll for sale on the internet." - posted on 02/01/2005 11:27:22 AM PST by BlackRain
"Did you ever consider becoming an investigative journalist? You just broke this story wide open." - posted on 02/01/2005 11:29:45 AM PST by 1LongTimeLurker
" I can't take any credit for the find. These guys deserve the credit - MilitaryPhotos.net - posted on 02/01/2005 11:35:09 AM PST by BlackRain
"hee hee ....how embarrassing for AP." - posted on 02/01/2005 11:35:35 AM PST by Gator101
So goes a thread on the internet news forum Free Republic as a story about a toy soldier being held hostage was still being reported as a real hostage situation by the mainstream news media.
As noted in the thread reposted above, in this case Free Republic was not the first to discover the doll become "hostage" story - MilitaryPhotos.net was - but as the most popular political news forum on the internet, it was first to amplify the mainstream media mistake. And it was way ahead of that media in getting the story out.
It was the same news forum that first broke the CBS fake National Guard documents story. And so it has been on many other stories on a daily basis. Free Republic with its tens of thousands of citizen reporters, and commentators - albeit most of them amateur has become an influential source of news.
In this age of the communications revolution, two way news has become a reality. Free Republic has taken that revolution a step further.
And for fact checking - with those same tens of thousands of forum participants having expertise in a variety of fields and professions, you can find no better fact checking source for finding out a GI hostage was really a GI Joe.
Give credit where credit is due.
I absolutely love FR! Thanks for the ping, Howlin.
Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my ‘miscellaneous’ ping list.
Here you go... [AP SCOOP] Space Shuttle Columbia Will Be Visible In San Francisco Area (6AM Pacific)
Oh geez...
Way to go!
Dude, you've got to stop. Copenhagen out the nose onto the keyboard is PAINFUL!!!!! LMAO!
Cool very cool.
Mirrored loacally to load faster:
Get your official "PJ Warrior" print now guys!
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3780554890
Yawn!!
Seriesly - that is awesome, Dog and all who exposed that particular steaming pile.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/833885/posts
AND dianose why it burned up! We KNEW here at FR for days before it was announced.
The power of the free press - educated people on FR. Yippee!
Thanks, JimRob.
Wait! I thought we were all RIGHT WING EXTREMISTS!?!? YEAH FREEREPUBLIC!!!
Doesn't always work that way.
Anyone else out there that remembers the thread prior to the news breaking about Jesse Jackson's love child?
A couple of the posters on-thread felt that since Matt Drudge was running a teaser about news about to surface on Jackson that Matt might already have a story ready to run. They experimented with URLs until they came up with what Matt already had loaded ready to be linked and copied-and-pasted it to the thread.
Boy, Jim was P. O.'d. His posters had essentially Hacked another webmaster's site to break a story before Matt had planned to.
In these cases, it was surmised that Matt was fed the story by the paper that was hyping it as running in their morning addition. The probable idea was that Matt running it at 10:00 wouldn't steal their story, but would, instead, promote sales.
Unfortunately, inquiring minds here, wanted to know and figured out how to find out five hours early. (Not recommended for those wishing to keep posting privileges.)
Dang, I laughed so hard reading and refreshing as it went down that I about split a gut.
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