Posted on 04/09/2003 10:20:16 AM PDT by Prince Charles
Not even close. From Duck Season(click for the rest of the article):
Cut to: Andrew Gilligan, the BBC's man in downtown Baghdad. "I'm in the center of Baghdad," said a very dubious Gilligan, "and I don't see anything… But then the Americans have a history of making these premature announcements." Gilligan was referring to a military communiqué from Qatar the day before saying the Americans had taken control of most of Baghdad’s airport. When that happened, Gilligan had told World Service listeners that he was there, at the airport - but the Americans weren't. Gilligan inferred that the Americans were lying. An hour or two later, a different BBC correspondent pointed out that Gilligan wasn't at the airport, actually. He was nearby - but apparently far enough away that the other correspondent felt it necessary to mention that he didn’t really know if Gilligan was around, but that no matter what Gilligan had seen or not seen, the airport was firmly and obviously in American hands.
It was important to the BBC that Gilligan not be wrong twice in two days. Whatever the truth was, the BBC, like Walter Duranty’s New York Times, must never say, "I was wrong." So, despite the fact that the appearance of American troops in Baghdad was surely one of the war's big moments, and one the BBC had obviously missed, American veracity became the story of the day. Gilligan, joined by his colleagues in Baghdad, Paul Wood and Rageh Omaar, kept insisting that not only had the Americans not gone to the "center" - which they reckoned to be where they were - they hadn't really been in the capital at all. Both Omaar and Wood told listeners that they had been on hour-long Iraqi Ministry of Information bus rides - "and," said Wood, "we were free to go anywhere" - yet they had seen nothing of an American presence in the city. From Qatar, a BBC correspondent helpfully explained that US briefings, such as that announcing the Baghdad incursion, were meaningless exercises, "more PR than anything else." Maybe, implied the World Service, the Americans had made it all up: all day long, Wood repeatedly reported that there was no evidence to support the American claim.
Oddly enough, that picture of the very damage he is talking about has disappeared from ALL the internet photo sites.
I saw it, too, before it went missing; I've seen cars hit buildings and do more damage.
But maybe, since their Iraqi minders have skedaddled, they might report the story differently.
My husband heard on NPR this morning about an Italian reporter at the hotel, who said his "minder" was a particularly harsh S.O.B., but that this morning his minder was apprehended trying to steal the car belonging to his Italian colleague. They stopped him, and apparently was begging to be let go, then he ran home and the last they saw him, he was trying to tear up his I.D. card. He knows his number is up.
So maybe these reporters will change their tune. Let's see if the journalist's objectivity overcomes the anti-American leftist's biased reporting.
Note that the gun is not elevated towards the 15th floor.
I got that same feeling when the Sky News correspondent was talking today about how it had been trying to report with very hostile "minders" threatening your every word.
Thanks for the clarification.;o)
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