Here's a disturbing little footnote in the evolving story of complicity between news organizations and the government. It seems that not only will the news media provide AmeriKKKans with fluffy PG-rated coverage of the illegal and immoral invasion of Iraq, and the slaughter of thousands of people only trying to defend their homeland. The news media, will, in fact, print fake news supplied by the government, with full knowlege that it is false, to further an ongoing investigation. Case in point. http://www.seattleweekly.com/features/0317/news-dawdy.php This would be a good article to keep in mind when you hear media reports that Saddam's "Weapons of Mass Destruction" have finally been found. ----- NEWSPAPERS HAVE really only one obligation: to truthfully inform readers. Yet last week the King County Journal, a Bellevue-based daily serving the east and south suburbs, admitted failure to do even that in March 2002 when it printed a phony story about a suspicious fire that was actually staged by police to appear to be an arson. This story starts in January 2002, when Steven Sherer was convicted of killing his wife; her body was never found. The conviction didn't sit well with Sherer. From behind prison walls, prosecutors assert, he plotted to kill his former mother-in-law, his son, the prosecutor, and the prosecutor's four children. For starters, he contracted with his cellmate to torch the Bellevue home where his former mother-in-law and his son lived, preferably with them inside, according to court documents. Law enforcement officials found out and decided to stage an arson at Sherer's former mother-in-law's in order to dig up more information about Sherer's conspiracy. One problem: The cops needed to somehow prove to Sherer that the arson happened. So they contacted the King County Journal. Would the paper be willing to report the staged arson as if it were a real event so that they could have a clipping to pass along to Sherer? ... -- Eric Michael Cordian 0+ O:.T:.O:. Mathematical Munitions Division "Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole Of The Law"
On Sat, Apr 26, 2003 at 12:04:10PM -0700, Eric Cordian wrote:
The news media, will, in fact, print fake news supplied by the government, with full knowlege that it is false, to further an ongoing investigation.
Yes, that may be the case. It certainly is here. But let's not forget the fact that this incident has drawn sharp criticism from other journalists. -Declan
On Saturday, April 26, 2003, at 08:37 PM, Declan McCullagh wrote:
On Sat, Apr 26, 2003 at 12:04:10PM -0700, Eric Cordian wrote:
The news media, will, in fact, print fake news supplied by the government, with full knowlege that it is false, to further an ongoing investigation.
Yes, that may be the case. It certainly is here. But let's not forget the fact that this incident has drawn sharp criticism from other journalists.
-Declan
But the journalist and his editors are still alive. When they have been necklaced and lit, we can rest easier. Burning down the entire newspaper office would maybe be overkill, but, hey, what the hell. Fuck them dead. --Tim May
participants (3)
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Declan McCullagh -
Eric Cordian -
Tim May