The spirit of Jamil Hussein has arisen once more from Iraq with the report yesterday that more then a dozen children were killed in Ramadi:
A bomb attack near a soccer field in the volatile Iraqi city of Ramadi on Tuesday killed or wounded 19 people, most of them children, police said.
State television Iraqiya said 18 children had been killed by a car bomb at the field. Police said it was a roadside bomb.
There was no immediate comment from the U.S. military. Iraqiya gave no more details.
Police said the field was near an American military base.
Ramadi is the capital of Anbar province, the heart of the Sunni Arab insurgency in Iraq.
But today it was discovered that there was no bomb, there was no 18 children dead, but there WAS a controlled explosion of explosives that was a bit bigger then expected:
But Rear Adm. Mark Fox, a U.S. military spokesman, said "the allegation was false" and suggested that rumors began circulating after a controlled detonation by U.S. forces caused injuries in Ramadi.
On Tuesday, a military statement said 30 civilians and one Iraqi soldier were injured by flying debris when troops destroyed 15 bags of explosives. None of the injuries was life-threatening, it added.
"There was no second blast," Fox told reporters, "and there was no 18 children killed."
So how did this happen?
Exactly as it happened with the Burning Sunni story. Unverified reports were spread throughout the media by reporters wanting to get a scoop. Wanting to push a story with more bloodshed.
Damn the facts! We don’t need no stinkin’ facts!
Hide in the green zone and call a few people. That is the summation of work from our wonderful AP and Reuters. So lets look at how this all unfolded from Gateway Pundit:
Initial reports said it was a roadside car bomb next to a soccer field.
Then.. the media reported that it was a suicide car bomber.
Then… the police said the attack may have been on Monday.
Then… the media reported that 18 boys playing soccer were killed in the attack.
Then… it was 16 children and two women that were killed in the blast.
Then… there was a report that it was 12 children and 6 women who were killed in the blast.
Then… the media reported that it may have been a controlled explosion by the US with minor injuries!
Then… the US is denying that anyone was killed in the Ramadi blast on Tuesday!
Now… The media admits the reports were all wrong!
We all know Jamil gets around but is he digging around the police stations in Ramadi now?
Ok, joking, but come on. How many more incidents like this need to happen before people start to understand that the MSM inside and outside of Iraq are relying on Iraqi stringers for the WHOLE story. If the AP had done one iota of true factchecking on the Burning Six story they would have discovered that there was no evidence to suggest that incident happened. Now if Reuters had sent a reporter out to check this soccer field they would have discovered the same thing with this story.
But I guess this is asking too much from our MSM.
UPDATE
Here is CNN burying the news that the story is false:
The U.S. military is disputing a report that 18 boys were killed Tuesday when a bomb detonated near a soccer field in Ramadi, west of Baghdad.
An Iraqi security adviser said that the incident may have been confused with a Monday blast in the same area.
Coalition spokesman Rear Adm. Mark I. Fox on Wednesday called the report of 18 deaths "erroneous" and reiterated previous U.S. military assertions that the only explosion in Ramadi on Tuesday was administered by coalition troops in a controlled setting.
The detonation in the southeast part of the city was much larger than anticipated and a few dozen people received injuries, none life-threatening, Fox said.
The report of 18 boys killed was first aired Tuesday on Iraqi state TV. The Iraqi Interior Ministry later told CNN it had confirmed the blast on the western outskirts of Ramadi, and Iraq’s president, prime minister and foreign minister quickly denounced the attack.
The U.S. military initially said it could not confirm the incident.
Col. Tariq al-Theibani, Iraqi security adviser for Anbar province, said Wednesday that a parked minibus — packed with wood and dynamite — detonated Monday, not Tuesday, near an open area that children use as a soccer field. The blast occurred in the southeast Ramadi area, he said.
Eighteen people were killed and 35 others were wounded, some critically, al-Theibani said. Women, children and police officers were reportedly among the casualties.
I’m calling it "buried" because they include it in a multipost story whereas the story yesterday was front and center all over their show.
Typical.
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