| Submit your comments on this article |
| Iraq |
| NBC Undermines ABC & BBC Reports that Belittled POW Rescue |
| 2003-06-04 |
| Back on May 7 ABC's World News Tonight with Peter Jennings belittled the military effort to rescue POW Jessica Lynch from a Nasiriyah hospital, focusing on how the U.S. forces knew they would face no opposition, unnecessarily frightened the staff and caused a lot of damage, specifically by breaking door knobs. ABC's story was prompted by a Toronto Star story which suggested that the presence of video cameras with the rescuers suggested it was all a Pentagon propaganda effort. A few weeks later, the BBC checked in with a documentary accusing the U.S. forces of firing off blanks in the hospital, a sure sign it was all staged for the cameras to provide great propaganda video of military heroics. But now, several week later, NBC's Jim Avila and crew have gone to Nasiriyah and discovered that the truth seems to lie closer to the story initially conveyed by the U.S. military than to the anti-military tales spun by ABC and the BBC. On Friday's NBC Nightly News, Avila reported that hospital staff "say the so-called blanks were actually flash-bang grenades used to stun and frighten hospital workers and potential resistance. No bullets or blanks were fired inside the hospital. And the Americans had every reason to expect trouble. Hospital workers confirm the Iraqi military used the basement as a headquarters." A doctor told Avila that "what he calls the big heads of the Iraqi army left just six hours before the raid." Avila added that "the Iraqis told NBC News the American soldiers' behavior was humane." For instance, when one of the physicians said the handcuffs "hurt and they were too tight," the "soldiers immediately loosened them." Avila didn't mention or show what obsessed ABC's David Wright: broken door knobs. I love it when they eat their own. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #8 To add to what Phil wrote, the hospital was also being used as a military HQ (at least the basement was) and was staffed up until six hours before the raid. |
| Posted by: Dar 2003-06-04 14:24:20 |
| #7 Yes and does anyone remember about the fact they had to dig all the bodies of the other POWs with their bare hands while there? And most of all, how about that big floor map in the basement of this so called hospital? Seems to me they were quite prudent going in well armed even if there wasn't a lot of resistance. You just never know if the whole thing was a big trap. |
| Posted by: Phil 2003-06-04 13:19:08 |
| #6 [H]ow about some kudos for NBC? If I could be sure it was for "journalistic integrity" and not to protect NBC's own upcoming, made-for-TV movie "Saving Jessica Lynch", then I'd be willing to grant some kudos. |
| Posted by: Dar 2003-06-04 10:51:06 |
| #5 What the mass media has to realize is that they don't control information anymore. They aren't the only conduit. They can't smugly push their biases past people anymore and get away with it. Thanks to the net, there's a mountain of info out there from all sides of the spectrum and plenty of people around to explore it. Things will be checked out and the media will get called on it when they screwup or flat out lie because they twist what they report to fit their agendas. What amazes me is how slowly the mass media outlets and their people seem to be catching on to this fact. Get your facts straight, folks. If you don't, someone WILL nail you for it. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2003-06-04 10:15:48 |
| #4 how about some kudos for NBC? |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2003-06-04 10:13:13 |
| #3 Jennings was surely more proud of the military actions of his own Canadian troops...oh, wait... |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-06-04 09:52:48 |
| #2 This is the same lack of fact checking that has been discovered at the New York Times and Los Angeles Times. It is time that ABC, the BBC, and CNN look in the mirror, and admit that they carry a bias in their reporting. This however, isn't simply bias. They loath Pres. Bush, and will stop at nothing, especially telling lies, in order to harm the upcoming 2004 campaign. |
| Posted by: VRWC Colorado Chapter (Vast Right Wing Conspiracy) 2003-06-04 09:48:07 |
| #1 Peter Jennings should make like Sammy Sosa and put a cork in it. The whole idea of staging a media stunt in a war zone is so ignorant to begin with, but then so many reporters are so ignorant of anything military they have no credibility--although they are great at getting in touch with their feelings, or the feelings of the eyewitness, which is always the yardstick by which a truly newsworthy story is measured. |
| Posted by: Dar 2003-06-04 09:41:33 |