Why does the liberal media belive every word the Iraqis say?

http://channels.netscape.com/ns/news/story.jsp?idq=/ff/story/0001/20030328/174502299.htm ^

[Jonez712]

Iraq: U.S. Missile Kills 58 in Baghdad

By HAMZA HENDAWI

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP)- Iraq's information minister said at least 58 people were killed Friday in a crowded market in northwest Baghdad by what local officials called a coalition bombing.

The market was strewn with wreckage and there were bloodstains on a sidewalk. Crowds of mourners wailed and blood-soaked children's slippers sat on the street not far from a crater blasted into the ground.

The U.S. Central Command in Qatar said it was looking into the report. Iraqi officials have blamed U.S. forces for explosions at another market that killed 14 people on Wednesday. The Pentagon had denied targeting the neighborhood.

Early Saturday, a strong explosion shook the center of Baghdad, and it appeared to be located on the west bank of the Tigris River. Many government departments are located in the area, including the Information Ministry.

Iraqi state television, meanwhile, said three Iraqis had been arrested for spying for the United States, alleging they were assigned to inspect areas of Baghdad that had been attacked to determine if they needed to be hit again.

The report identified the men as Ibrahim Abdel Qader, Ghareeb Ahmed Hamadeh and Hussein Shahed. Qader was quoted as saying he was given about two pounds of TNT from ``foreigners - Americans,'' and Shahed said he was recruited by an American he identified as ``Gen. Mike'' who was from the CIA.

Information Minister Mohammed Saeed Sahhaf said 58 people were killed in the market explosion, and said the number was likely to rise because many others were wounded. There were conflicting reports, however, on the number of casualties.

Haqi Ismail Razouq, director of al-Nour Hospital, where the dead and injured were taken, put the death toll at 30 and the number of injured at 47; surgeon Issa Ali Ilwan said 47 were killed and 50 injured. Witnesses said they counted as many as 50 bodies.

There was no immediate explanation for the discrepancy.

``Why do they makes mistakes like these if they have the technology?'' asked Abdel-Hadi Adai, who said he lost his 27-year-old brother-in-law Najah Abdel-Rida in the blast. ``There are no military installations anywhere near here.''

Sahhaf said civilians were being targeted because Iraqi troops had defeated coalition forces in battles

``These are cowardly air raids,'' he told Lebanon's Al-Hayat LBC satellite television.

Most of the injuries were caused by shrapnel, said Dr. Ahmed Sufian.

``The women and children were screaming,'' he said. ``We were overwhelmed. What will they hit next? This hospital?''

The Al-Nasr market is in the working-class district of al-Shoala. Witnesses said the bombing took place when the market was at its busiest, around 6 p.m. They said they saw an aircraft flying high overhead just before the blast.

The explosion left a crater the size of a coffee table on a sidewalk in front of a row of food and other shops. Curiously, nothing was blackened in the immediate surrounding area.

Water was seeping from ruptured pipes and corrugated iron was dangling from the roofs of the damaged shops.

A red Volkswagen was parked only a few yards from the crater, peppered with what could have been flying shrapnel.

At the hospital, relatives of the dead and wounded wept hysterically and yelled the names of their loved ones. Many searched for relatives or friends.

Speaking from his hospital bed, Ali Kheidir Saleh, 23, said he was in a house near the market when the blast brought down part of the house.

Another of the injured, 52-year-old construction contractor Salman Zaki Kazim, was struck by shrapnel in his hip. He was shopping for a TV antenna, accompanied by his granddaughter and son-in-law, at the time of the bombing. Neither was hurt.

At the scene of the bombing, women in black chadors were sobbing outside homes where some of the victims lived. Men cried and hugged each other and participants in a funeral procession shouted the Muslim creed, ``There is no God but God,'' as they walked through the market.

Down the road, residents gathered at a Shiite Muslim mosque, crowded around seven wooden coffins draped in blankets. Some of the men stood silently. Others sobbed into trembling hands. In the background, women cried, ``Oh God! Oh God!''

Another witness, Omar Ismail, a 35-year-old engineer who witnessed the explosion, said body parts were strewn across the street.

``Why do they hate the Iraqi people so much?'' he asked.

Explosions in the capital late Thursday night and early Friday were aimed at disrupting communications between Saddam Hussein's leadership and his military, U.S. officials said. Airstrikes also targeted positions of the Republican Guard - Saddam's best-trained, best-equipped fighters - in a ring outside the city.

Sahhaf said the overnight airstrikes had killed seven people in Baghdad and wounded 92. The Arab television network Al-Jazeera reported eight people were killed at Baath party headquarters in bombing Friday afternoon.

The airstrikes hit at or near the Information and Planning ministries and at telephone installations - ``as if government buildings are empty of human beings and there are no civilians in them,'' Sahhaf said.

The attack gutted a seven-story telephone exchange building in an area called Al-Alwya.

[Jonez712]

So I log onto AIM today and I find this headline: 58 Die as Allied Missile Hits Baghdad

This is completely asinine. How could these so-called American journalists print the word of the Iraqi government as gospel, time and again? All of these fools consistantly land on the side of the Hitler of Baghdad, and they're sabotaging the war effort. It makes me sick to see that the media in our own country would try to gain sympathy for our enemy, and actually give credence to the falacious BS that Saddam's regime constantly puts out.

It has already been proven thousands of times that Iraq lies about civilian casualties, and does anything they can to make more of them occur. Yet the mainstream media decides to overlook this, because George Bush is just such an evil bastard. I think I agree with Michael Savage when he says that anyone who says Bush is worse than Hitler is mentally ill.

[LiberalBuster]

I dunno. But, I have an equally perplexing question: Why do conservatives (who normally distrust government) believe every word their government says?

[droberts]

"Why does the liberal media belive every word the Iraqis say?"

Maybe it's because of the flood of lies that got us into this war in the first place.

[Rippin]

I dunno. But, I have an equally perplexing question: Why do conservatives (who normally distrust government) believe every word their government says?

Because conservatives care about facts, and the fact is that the Iraqi government lies more than hte current American government. If you dispute that, wake up, if you don't, then close the pie hole.

[tomahawk]

Because they want Iraq to win and Bush to lose, that's why.

It's that simple.

[wretchard]

"Why does the liberal media belive every word the Iraqis say?"

Largely because they are lazy. And the laziness extends across the board. They don't bother to correctly identify aircraft, vehicles, or even units. When they find an explosion in the marketplace with a 2 foot crater and are told "an American cruise missile did this", they don't ask themselves the right questions. How did a 1,000 pound warhead do this? How does a cruise missile which can punch through a roof in Saddam's palace dint the plaza by so little?

So even the unbiased among them do the easy thing, they write down what they are told.

There is laziness too, of a worse kind. They don't bother to learn the language or history of a place, beyond what they might get from a handout. That makes them a travesty of what journalists originally were. The original journalists were people who kept journals on their travels. Guys like Peter Fleming, Fred Burnaby, Lewis and Clark come to mind. They were expert to start with, and because of the slowness of travel, grew into the places they were observing.

The average journalist of today is a very poor observer. I have noticed that, even when the reports are lagged to prevent security breaches, there is no sense of time, place or purpose to their accounts. Sometimes they will report the same incident multiple times. One rarely gets a sense, too, of topography. Was it raining? Was it dark? Where was the river or town in relation to the engagement? Nothing. Often, I have had to sift the article for clues. A place name, a natural feature, something.

I am convinced many journalists are not so much biased as just plain ignorant and lazy. These faults are remediable and the record will suffer for their deficiencies.

[Jonez712]

I'd rather believe the Defense Department than the Iraqi government and the liberal media. We're at war right now. War is totally different from all government business. I think it's important that the people in harm's way right now who are planning and executing this war have the confidence and the trust of the American people, and they clearly have a majority of it. We cannot go around crying conspiracy and being all cynical when these brave men and women are going to battle, with some of them getting shot and killed or wounded.

[Starstruck]

We consider the two sources and make decisions based on that. Until we are told "I did not have sex with that woman" or the equivalant we will believe our Commander-in-Chief. Once we get the "Read my lips" speech we will cut off our noses to express our displeasure. This is where we are different from liberals and I'm offended at your flippant questioning of our integrity.

[kesg]

Because they want Iraq to win and Bush to lose, that's why.

It's that simple.

As I said elsewhere, Fox News wants to win and run up the score; MSNBC wants us to win, but only in a way that hurts Bush, and the rest of the broadcast and cable news networks want us to lose. Most national newspapers also fall into one of the latter two categories.

[Just mythoughts]

Excuse me, "conservative believe every word their government says"?

Remember Lott?

This is not an equally perplexing question, typical method of changing the subject.

Liberal media believed the Clintons and they are of the same mindset of Saddam.

[cinFLA]

Why do conservatives (who normally distrust government) believe every word their government says?

Conservative don't believe every word their government says. However, when it comes to a choice between Saddam and Bush, I will take Bush.

[Jonez712]

I am convinced many journalists are not so much biased as just plain ignorant and lazy. These faults are remediable and the record will suffer for their deficiencies.

Then why don't they sit in front of Defense Secretary Rumsfeld and Joint Cheifs Chairman Myers and write down whatever they hear? Anyway, you'd have to be pretty damn appathetic to be lazy enough to believe the enemy over your own country.

[sheik yerbouty]

Because they choose to.

[maxwell]

Dude... I sat in the bar this evening and listened to three well-educated academics discuss how Bush was gonna get the CIA to plant WMD's where the troops and media would "discover" 'em, and how the origin of any WMD's that might be found would be suspect... And how the media is apparently in a big ol' Bush-love-fest right now...

Most folks have made up their minds about things and it taints their perspective in general...

[Teetop]

Shouldn't your name be LiberalBusted, instead of LiberalBuster?
Given the choice between Iraqi info minister or the DOD, I'll take the DOD everytime...

[WOSG]

I dont trust either side totally, but we certainly know the Coalition would not deliberately target civilians. We know that. we can see that, with 7000 JDAMs and cruise missiles.

Doesnt mean collateral damage or mistakes arent made.

I heard for example that the Baath party HQ was hit and demolished in baghdad. our NPR "the world" show had to mention that a family living next door was killed as well, despite the precision bombing.

What REALLY worries me is this: Saddam could definitely gain propaganda coups if civilians seem to be suffering from the allied bombs. The marketplace bomb is SUSPICIOUSLY UNLIKE a bomb we would drop - more like an AAA luster bomb. The regime has tried other desperate and evil measures - they already have wantonly put civilians in danger. It's a small step for them to deliberately allow bomds like AAA bombs or even planted bombs.

[Maigret]

Because their heroes have always been tyrants.

[Only1choice____Freedom]

Seperated at birth?

In St. Petersburg!

[wretchard]

"Then why don't they sit in front of Defense Secretary Rumsfeld and Joint Cheifs Chairman Myers and write down whatever they hear?"

They would have to understand it first.

[jackbill]

In these two "market bombings", where are the missile parts with English markings? Where are any missile parts? We haven't seen any.

Less than an hour after the missile hit Kuwait City this evening we were seeing missile parts - with Arabic markings.

Missiles don't disappear after they hit something. There are always - always - parts left at the scene.

Does that tell you something?