Props To Josh Marshall

The NY Times splashes some ink on the good job done by Josh Marshall and others in debunking a funny photograph.  Here is the post that started it all [Nearly!], and his Busted!

There is a lot more on the propensity of Big Journos to rip off small journos - gee, tell Raw Story.

And no, we do not anticipate similar coverage for Powerline or Stephen Spruiell.

MORE:  Interesting - the Times had a more vivid experience with the ability of the blogosphere to ferret out a phony photo, but I don't recall them running an article lauding the bloggers in question.  Here is the original article, sans picture (which the archiving process often drops).

Comments

[Dwilkers]

Man. With the internet a guy just can't get away with lying anymore.

Now if only the MSM could figure out that applies to them also in the new info tech era.

[Other Tom]

I've gone to Marshall's site, but I confess that I can't deduce what the fuss is all about. Can someone summarize it? Thanks.

[ed]

The photo or the ripoff?

[Other Tom]

The whole thing. Did someone plagiarize a photo? Or did someone represent a photo from Istanbul as having been taken in Baghdad? What's going on?

[Patrick R. Sullivan]

Funny the Times wasn't so enthusiastic when Paul Krugman got caught using Jason Leopold's forged e-mail about Thomas White.

[Lew Clark]

I'm most impressed that the MSM/Left knows that Istanbul is not in Iraq, since the view of the inside of a Turkish luxury hotel and an Iraqi luxury hotel is pretty similar. Next they're going to discover that Turks, Persians and Kurds are not Arabs. Then we're on our way!

[boris]

Yeah, what's the dealio. After a trip through both places, Istanbul and Baghdad one photo on a politician's website was improperly captioned as demonstrating a peaceful Baghdad when in fact it was of Istanbul.

This demonstrates what?

Lying cheating Republicans or the power of the leftwing blogosphere to ferret out lying cheating Republicans.

This is a much bigger story than just some lame forged documents on some nanoscopic media outlet called (I think) See BS or something like that.

Everybody knows that Baghdad actually looks like Hiroshima after the bomb.

[clarice]

Not as enthusiastic either when the NYT posted a picture of an Afghan village with an old Soviet rocket pointing the wrong way (cone up) and said it was a shot of the damge we'd done to innocents in Pakistan when our rockets (as it later turned out) had hit 5 top AQ leaders in the attack.

[ed]

Other Tom, the guy posted a photo from Turkey and claimed it was Baghdad. He was attempting to portray the city as lively and safe. When called on it, he backtracked and posted a shot of Baghdad from what appears to be a hotel balcony. As we all know, you can't really tell what's going on in Iraq from a hotel balcony.

Marshall commented that a reporter credited blogs when reporting on the photo messup. This was a reversal from the past few days when reporting on some blogs had been ripped by newspapers and not credited.

[Other Tom]

Thanks Ed. Who was the guy who posted it as a "Baghdad" shot?

[boris]

He was attempting to portray ...

Since the "lively and safe" picture was false, this is clearly proof positive that Baghdad is in fact deadly and dangerous.

Nobody in their right mind can dispute such clear and compelling logic.

[Other Tom]

Fake but accurate.

[ed]

Howard Kaloogian

[clarice]

IIRC Kaloogian was in both places and someone posted the IStanbul rather than the Baghdad photo on his website and misidneitified it.
Not good, but nowhere as egregious as the fake AFP photoe the NYT posted a few weeks ago or Jason Leopold's fake email,or even Lichtblau's playhouse reportage of the FISA hearings etc. OTOH, Josh can use the eyes--his tips from Sid Vicious are getting thinner...

[clarice]

preeview is for sisssies..

[TM]

Ahh, it was the American Thinker that busted the Times.

[JJ]

Catch the article by Mr. Waas that NYT links in the article?

Josh refers to the situation described as evidence of a really deep coverup. These noobies into politics! They can be so amazed by even the hint of pre-election preening.

[clarice]

It's on the other thread..JJ

[windansea]

this just in....looks like a balanced panel

Announcing Yearly Kos Panel on CIA Leak Investigation
By Jane Hamsher @ 1:03 pm

I’m very excited to announce that on June 9, 2006 we’ll be having a panel at the Yearly Kos convention to discuss the CIA leak investigation. I’ll be moderating, and the panel members will be:

Christy Hardin Smith, former prosecutor and blogger at Firedoglake
. Ambassador Joseph Wilson, husband of Valerie Plame and author of The Politics of Truth.
. Marcy Wheeler, who blogs as "emptywheel" at The Next Hurrah
. Larry Johnson, former CIA official and blogger at No Quarter
. Dan Froomkin, whose column "White House Briefing" appears at the washingtonpost.com

[Sue]

If they allow Larry Johnson anywhere near their panel, any credibility they might have wanted will be gone....

[Sue]

Nevermind, I just noticed Joe Wilson was on there. They aren't looking for credibility.

[clarice]

With any luck by June 9 the case will have been dismissed..

[windansea]

heh Clarice...thats just mean!

[TM]

Press release for the Yearly Kos on Las Vegas.

I expect the Plame panel will be interesting.

[Gary Maxwell]

With any luck by June 9 the case will have been dismissed

Not in that alternative reality. The Rove indictment, we know in their world, is just around the corner and will expose the great and broad conspiracy to commit ... something.

[topsecretk9]

TM, did you notice the motions requests for extentions in the Fitz thread?

Yearly Kos on Las Vegas.
Joy.

[clarice]

Ts--thanks for mentioning that..Could you refresh my recollection on the date they are requesting?

[topsecretk9]

Jimminy I don't know

Sue, I am a menace in Pacer, can you interpurt anything i left in the thread? Want a link?

[Sue]

This was filed today:

Unopposed MOTION for Protective Order by USA as to I. LEWIS LIBBY. (Attachments: # (1) Affidavit # (2) Text of Proposed Order # (3) Text of Proposed Order)(Kedian, Kathleen)

[clarice]

I'll look it up..I'll try to find the thread--Gack-

OT:Cboldt has done a lot of research on the Convertino case--Here's a snippet:

__June 2003-August 2004: Detroit `Sleeper Cell' Members Found Guilty,
Then Convictions Overturned After Discovery of Widespread Prosecutorial Misconduct

Verdicts are announced in a trial of four men who lived in a Detroit apartment on 9/11 that had previously been rented by al-Qaeda operative Nabil al-Marabh (see September 17, 2001). Abdel-Ilah Elmardoudi and Karim Koubriti are convicted of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists and also document fraud. Ahmed Hannan is convicted of document fraud. Farouk Ali-Haimoud is cleared of all charges. Justice Department officials, including Attorney General John Ashcroft, assert the men were in an al-Qaeda sleeper cell and had plans to attack targets in the US and Turkey. The verdicts are hailed as the first successful post-9/11 terrorism prosecution. [Washington Post, 1/31/2004] However, the case soon begins to fall apart. The judge learns the prosecution had withheld evidence in the case, and in December 2003, orders an internal Justice Department inquiry. In August 2004, the inquiry asks the judge to throw out the convictions because of prosecutorial misconduct, which he does. For instance, it is revealed that the only witness in the trial, Youssef Hmimssa, told a fellow prisoner that he had made up all his evidence against the defendants. But the prosecution kept this information, and much more that was potentially damaging to their case, from the jury. The Washington Post later reports that the inquiry concludes "the prosecution stuck doggedly to its theory in defiance of plausible explanations and advice from other US government officials. Records suggest prosecutors withheld evidence that cast doubt on their conclusions, even when ordered by superiors to deliver documents to the defense." By late 2005, it will be reported that a federal grand jury is investigating whether the lead prosecutor, Richard Convertino, or anyone else should be indicted. Convertino meanwhile will sue Ashcroft and other Justice Department superiors, accusing them of mismanaging the case and retaliating against him for testifying critically about the Justice Department before Congress. [Washington Post, 1/31/2004; Associated Press, 9/30/2004; Washington Post, 12/20/2005]

http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/entity.jsp?entity=karim_koubriti__________
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1606231/posts?page=2#2

[clarice]

Sue, what are they seeking a protective order for? Any indication? And do YOU remember the requested date for return on the subpoenas?

[topsecretk9]

Kos in Vegas

Tell me the Wilson/CIA leak is not the highlight? I mean their are other more important panels, like agenda and getting candidates elected right?

[Sue]

Clarice,

It is a supplemental order to one entered on November 23, filed by Fitzgerald, on non-classified and declassified documents.

[topsecretk9]

Tuesday:

Clarice can probably interrupt better, but some pacer filings

Filed: 03/28/2006
Entered: 03/28/2006
Entered By: zjsc,
Event Name(s): Motion for Extension of Time to File Response/Reply
Full Docket Text for Document 1:
MOTION for Extension of Time to File Response to subpoena by •NEW YORK TIMES COMPANY. (jsc)

Filed: 03/28/2006
Entered: 03/28/2006
Entered By: zjsc,
Event Name(s): Motion for Extension
Full Docket Text for Document 1:
CONSENT MOTION for Extension of time to respond to subpoena filed by •NBC NEWS & AFFILIATES.(jsc)

•Times Inc

•Filer MATTHEW COOPER
•Filer Judy Miller
•Andrea Mitchell
•Tim Russert

So now we know Andrea was subpoenaed. I am trouble with a capitol T on the pacer site.

[Sue]

It is agreed to according to the affidavit filed by Fitzgerald.

[clarice]

It seems an uncontested motion to get more time to respond to the supoenas but in the absence of the papers I cann't tell what the new due date is..BTW have you noticed, Fitz' website is not being kept up?

As to the new filing, w/o seeing it I can't say what he's asking for, but it is uncontested so it doesn't seem like a big deal.

[clarice]

Guess what? Before Convertino indicted Marabh
Fitz tried to:

"At one point in late 2002, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald in Chicago drafted an indictment against al-Marabh on multiple counts of making false statements in his interviews with FBI agents. Justice headquarters declined prosecution. Fitzgerald declined through a spokesman to discuss the reasons."http://tinyurl.com/f8j37

Of course, ahem, that was in a case where he was under actual supervision and direction..

[larwyn]

Stephen Shields has this post at AT today: Kos flaunts his moral vanity and ignorance
........conclusion:
It would not surprise me in the least that Mr. Zuniga simply doesn’t know this history, or much history at all beyond his own.

I am betting that CSPAN will cover this gathering of so many of their A listers.

[JohnH]

I read the Kos article. I saw the reference to his being from his "beloved" El Salvador, and "living through" the civil war there, and my thought was immediately, which side was he on?

The Left here in the U.S. was in high dudgeon all during the conflict in El Salvador over the human rights abuses of the right wing military rulers of the country, while saying little or nothing about the murderous communists.

How surprising that Kos places himself on the anti-communist side of the conflict. Not even a word about whether "his" side was morally pure. Perhaps he would see the Iraq war differently if he was an Iraqi. Chickenhawks indeed.

And his failure to mention the controversy over the war in El Salvador illustrates the way in which the Left eventually concedes defeat in their ideological crusades. They move on silently and with pure hearts.

[JohnH]

Kos should have a dialogue on El Salvador with John Kerry. Kos's version of the conflict is:

"The communist guerillas didn't have artillery and missile batteries...Instead, the guerillas bombed power lines, assassinated prominent members of the intelligentsia, government, and business. They sowed fear and chaos by sniping in crowded markets and laying mines along heavily trafficked walkways. They kidnapped for ransom to help fund their operations. Mornings were spent scanning the pages to see which friends, acquaintances, or family members had "disappeared" the previous day, courtesy of the rebels or right-wing death squads."

So there is at least passing mention of the right wing death squads. But think for a minute about the connection back then. Kos was in danger of being killed by communists in San Salvador, and John Kerry was working to cut off U.S. aid to the right wing government that was holding the communists back. At times the communists held some neighborhoods in San Salvador.

Here is a report on Kerry's activities, from PBS:

The war that once raged in El Salvador in the 1980s -- a flashpoint in the Cold War -- is not a topic of debate in the current U.S. presidential race. But the ghosts of the conflict linger.

"You're not always measured by the things that you have a bill named after you for -- sometimes you're measured by stopping really bad things from happening, like when I stood up and helped stop Ronald Reagan's illegal war in Central America," Senator Kerry declared on a recent campaign stop in Wisconsin.

Who did Kerry want to win in that war?

[richard mcenroe]

"Not as enthusiastic either when the NYT posted a picture of an Afghan village with an old Soviet rocket pointing the wrong way (cone up) and said it was a shot of the damge we'd done to innocents in Pakistan..."

Clarice -- What was funnier was that "rocket" was a 152-155mm artillery shell...

[kim]

Is there any question who Kos wanted to win? That's a serious question. I don't know the answer, but can speculate in ignorance quite fancifully.
=============================

[clarice]

What do I know about shells and rockets? I do know they are fired to hit cone down, though. And that the picture looked suspicious and staged...

What was worse is that for days the media printed the AQ press disinformation straight and when the report from Pakistan indicated that the strike had in fact killed top AQ that was hard to find anywhere.

[richard mcenroe]

Clarice — Well, the point I was making is I don't believe our Predator drones carry 155mm howitzers... *g*

[clarice]

Your guess proves right.*g*

[Kate]

Unfortunately, the default position of the media is to disseminate the enemy's propaganda. The latest example: the mosque massacre last weekend. Well, turns out it wasn't a mosque and it wasn't a massacre. There have been 3 massacre stories this week. The insurgents want to get something going and the media wants another My Lai.

I would like to see the President continue to call the media on their behavior. It was interesting when they were on the defensive last week.

[nittypig]

When the heck is the "Just One Yearly" conference in Vegas? And who will be on the 'Wilsongate' panel?

[kim]

Yeah, C, where were the journalistic instincts that should have known something was up by the extraordinary manner in which the non-villager victims of that attack were rounded up and disappeared? In blogdom, that's where, where curiosity and truth have taken refuge from the depredations of MSM.
======================================

[Gary Maxwell]

OT I had somehow missed the brouhaha about the AP plagiarizing a blogger. The facts unlying are somewhat funnier than that. Its seems the story was wrong, and the story originally ran in RAW STORY. Facts wrong and Raw Story in the same sentence, who would have thunk it.

Now that AP has been called on it, it seems that AP knew it was from Raw Story but did not attribute it because it was a blog " they never heard of." Guess that means they dont read JOM too!

[Gary Maxwell]

Maybe they should have asked Larry Johnson about the bona fides of Raw Story. Then they could have attributed and still ran a completely false story. Where is this editing and fact checking I keep hearing about?

[kim]

They seem to be used to printing information from people they hope you never hear of.
===============================

[maryrose]

Yes Kate I agree. There was a lot of media frowning last week because Bush and Cheney had them dead to rights. In a clip on Hardball last night Cheney made a joke about getting ready for a press conference with himself holding a gun. It was funny but Chris Matthews didn't even crack a smile. They have been exposed for hyping just bad news and they in msm land resent it.

[kim]

We're printing this information, but we don't know, nor will you, its provenance.
==============================

[kim]

Its an ad anonym argument.
================

[kim]

There are Masters in Journalism specializing in the technique.
================================

[kim]

You're in the boonies, you're terribly powerful, your security guard has relaxed. Suddenly there's a man with a gun where he hadn't oughta be. Thank God, those survival instincts and reflexes are as sharp as ever despite the occasional need for a charge.
=====================

[ed]

Andrew Sullivan says Powell is one of Waas's sources:

http://time.blogs.com/daily_dish/2006/03/murray_waas_sou.html