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.
That's right. We know our stuff. In this case, action figures.
I want FR to break the Osama has been captured thread before the MSM has it. I want that in the worst way.
On that one I would not care if FR was last to report, just so the guy is captured.
You are so right. This is the place to be when you want really breaking news.
Good comparison.
"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."
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Pretty much sums it up.
Funniest threads ever!
Pingalingadingdong!
It's too bad FR wasn't around in '94. I can just picture it now:
"BREAKING!!! O.J. JUST PASSED ME UP on the North 405 Freeway! Watch for WHITE FORD BRONCO!!!!!!!!"
They like us. They really like us!
I was thinking more along the lines of Bill Clinton being a one term president.
Many thanks for the ping! :-)
Shouldn't GoGov.com have written an excerpt?
\Am`a*teur"\, n. [F., fr. L. amator lover, fr. amare to love.]
A person attached to a particular pursuit, study, or science as to music or painting; esp. one who cultivates any study or art, from taste or attachment, without pursuing it professionally.
Just doin' it for the love of the game, son.
Woof! (kudos, bravo, applause)
Holy crap we ROCK!!!
The pajamahadeen strikes again!!!
Buckhead/TankerKC/Howlin debunked the CBS hit piece that used forged military documents to denigrate President Bush.
Travis McGee busted the AP for using a fake Navy SEAL as an authority in a hit piece against GWB, too.
FR also had FReepers on-site who helped us instantaneously debunk the lies that Republicans at a Bush rally had "booed" when President Bush called for prayers for Clinton's recovery from his heart surgery operation.
FReeper JMStein forced a formal investigation into why Senator Kerry was illegally being paid his full Senate salary when he wasn't attending all Senate sessions.
Yours truly wrote the letter that helped get Senator Kerry busted for inflating his Senate Intelligence Committee Vice-Chairmanship exageration exposed.
I sometimes find it disconcerting to realize that the "Breaking News" on Monday was stuff I'd read about on the previous Friday, with analysis and discussion...and occassional definitive debunking by that time.
Disconcerting because by that time, I've occassionally forgotten how long ago I'd read it.
I was thinking more along the lines of Bill Clinton being a one term president.
***Remember Bill Clintoon's girlfriend Gennifer Flowers, who became the focus of attention during the 1992 election campaign? She had an affair with him for 12 years while he was governor of Arkansas. She had a tape recording of him instructing her to lie to the press about it. If FR had been around at that time, he wouldn't even have been a one-term president.
Thanks for that roundup of FR warriors' accomplishments. In addition, FR posters have had many instances of breaking news coups over MSM. You are keeper of the flame/records!!
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