Credibility of the War Bloggers, R.I.P.

[ck4829]

It's time for warbloggers to find a new conspiracy theory to promote because their most recent one, which involved accusing the Associated Press of manufacturing a source in Iraq and colluding with the insurgents, blew up in their faces. But don't look for detailed corrections, let alone heartfelt apologies. Being a warblogger means not having to say you're sorry.

I've written extensively about this controversy because I think it perfectly captures the right-wing warbloggers and their never-ending goal to undermine the press. Not with thoughtful, factual analysis -- which is always welcome -- but by feverishly trying to undercut news reports that might pose a problem for President Bush's war in Iraq and by shifting attention onto the media. They want to simultaneously create confusion about facts, while undermining news consumers' confidence in the mainstream news media.

Indeed, warbloggers want to have it both ways. They want to be seen as tenacious press critics, thoroughly scrutinizing the media's work and doing democracy a favor. But in reality they can't control their naked disdain for progressives, not to mention their consuming hatred of the "liberal media." It's a combination that routinely prompts them to launch dim-witted crusades built around flimsy, what-if conspiracy theories. (Glenn Greenwald assembled a Greatest Hits list here; the Terri Schiavo talking points memo hoax represents a particularly telling chapter in warblogger foolery.)

I'm not necessarily surprised by the outcome of the AP controversy. In December I noted, "Warbloggers, who have been wrong about Iraq for going on 50 straight months, are looking for a scapegoat. I don't think the AP is their answer."

Their press offensive began over Thanksgiving weekend when an AP dispatch, quoting Iraqi police Capt. Jamil Hussein, reported that Shiite militiamen had "grabbed six Sunnis as they left Friday worship services, doused them with kerosene and burned them alive near Iraqi soldiers who did not intervene." Warbloggers were skeptical of the chilling report, and actually raised some legitimate journalism questions, in part because no other news organizations could confirm the horrific event. The U.S. Central Command's communications machine, relying on the information from Iraq's Ministry of Interior, then issued a statement that it could not corroborate the Burned Alive story, followed by another statement that Hussein was not a Baghdad police captain.

That's when the warbloggers became unhinged. Piling on, they claimed the disputed story raised doubts about all the mainstream media's reporting in Iraq. Warbloggers also accused American journalists of being too cowardly to go get the news in Iraq themselves and relying on local Iraqi news stringers with obvious terrorist sympathies and who purposefully push insurgent propaganda into the news stream -- the way Hussein did with the Burned Alive story -- to create the illusion of turmoil.

* Curt at Flopping Aces described the police captain as "the fraud we know as Jamil Hussein."

* Charles Johnson at Little Green Footballs mocked the AP and "their nonexistent news sources."

* SeeDubya at JunkYardBlog categorically announced "There is no Captain Jamil Hussein," stressed "he doesn't really exist," that he's "non-existent," and suggested the AP source might actually be "Ayman Al-Zawahiri calling up the AP to give his version of events."

* Armed Liberal at Winds of Change declared, "We don't believe (Hussein) exists."

* Michelle Malkin mocked the AP's "bogus source Capt. Jamil Hussein." and

http://mediamatters.org/columns/200701090003