Some bloggers will basically believe anything, so long as it makes the media look bad. And they won’t hesitate to pass it along to their readers without doing any research at all. Via Antimedia, I learn there really was no riots in Afghanistan that killed 15! It was just another “media lie,” I guess. We conspired to discredit Newsweek!
Virtually every major news agency in the world has reported without verification that between 15 and 18 Afghanis were killed in the riots.
There’s just one problem. There is no more evidence for these deaths than there is that a U.S. interrogator flushed a Quran down the toilet. …
No details of the circumstances of the riots were released from any official sources – either U.S. or Afghan.
No details… wow! That’s some claim. Hmm. A little research, though:
LAT, May 14 (no link available):
“We were not expecting the north of the country to join in on the protests, but today we had angry mobs attacking aid agencies in Badakhshan,” said Zaher Azimy, spokesman for the Defense Ministry. “Three demonstrators were killed in clashes with local police.”
”Police fired in the air to disperse the crowd, and as a result one man was killed and one injured,” the local police chief, Amir Shah Nayebzada, said in a telephone interview.
The provincial governor, Abdul Majid, said by telephone that police shot at the protesters, killing three and injuring 13. A staff member at one aid group, Afghan Aid, said equipment was smashed but workers fled to safety.
Police fired to disperse crowds several times, witnesses said. Four people had been killed and 52 wounded, provincial health chief Fazel Mohammad Ibrahimi said after compiling information from three city hospitals
LAT, May 15 (no link available):
Haji Asadullah Khalid, the governor of Ghazni province, where one police officer and three protesters were killed during riots Friday, blamed the unrest on the forces of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a renegade warlord who is wanted by the U.S. government for planning attacks on American troops and the Afghan government.
In yesterday’s bloodiest incident, police fired on hundreds of anti-U.S. demonstrators in the town of Khogyani to prevent them from going to Jalalabad, 20 miles to the north, said police chief Maj. Gul Wali.
Wali counted three deaths among the protesters, who he said were armed.
The AP, May 12 (no link available):
In neighboring Logar province, CARE International, one of the largest international relief groups in Afghanistan, said students attacked its office, thumping one staff member over the head with a piece of wood and trashing two computers. Another foreign relief group office next door was reportedly set ablaze.
“It’s the symbols of this change in Afghanistan” that have been singled out, said Paul Barker, the country director for CARE.
Angry villagers in a district southwest of Jalalabad, some of them armed, tried to march to the city but were blocked by police, officials and witnesses said.
Protesters threw stones at police and gunfire broke out, and two protesters were killed, said district chief Muhammad Omar.
According to a May 16 item by BBC Media Monitoring (no link available), which translates foreign press reports, the Afghan newspapers Cheragh, Anis, Arman-e Melli, Erada and Hewad also reported on the violence, with many linking it to “foreign interference.”
“Several people were killed and injured,” Arman-e Melli reported.
Also, according to a May 15 BBC Media Monitoring report, Afghan president Hamed Karzai told a May 14 televised press conference in Pashto:
Unfortunately, when I was in Europe, very tragic and horrible incidents occurred in Afghanistan. Almost 15 of our compatriots were martyred and national property and assets of our people were looted and burnt. I was really saddened by these incidents. I wanted to return immediately, but as the trip was very important, I stayed there. They [European officials] asked me what was going on in Afghanistan. They expressed doubt and asked whether their cooperation and donation was of any use to the people and the situation in Afghanistan. When we asked them for cooperation in reconstructing our country, they said we construct buildings but you destroy them. They gave me examples of the incident in Logar Province and other incidents during which schools were burnt. It was really sad.
WorldNetDaily also claims that “not a single name of even one victim has been released.” I think what they mean not a single name has been reported (in the English-language press), since the only research they did was (supposedly) calling the Afghan embassy in Washington.
Also discussed uncritically on Jawa, Cold Fury, Media Slander, the American Mind, the Tears of Things, House of Wheels, Soloveichikpundit, Yelling at the Windshield, Lawhawk, and many others.
Descending beyond a farce, indeed.
“I’m going to have to quit blogging,” writes Antimedia. “How can I possibly trust anything in the media?”
Hey Antimedia — how can you possibly trust anything in WorldNetDaily??
P.S.: This just in — the tsunami didn’t kill anyone, either!
See my response here – http://www.antimedia.us/posts/1117862375.shtml
in either case, the pentagon now admits newsweek was essentially right. so what if a few muslims died in protests. that’s barely the point at this point. got the point?
Derek,
Have you noticed that Donny George, the director of the Iraq National Museum, is in New York giving talks? I listened to Leonard Lopate interview him on WNYC a few days ago and he admitted that of the 15,000 items that were looted during three days in 2003 half of that has been returned.
Lopate asked him why everyone was citing 170,000 items looted.
Donny George said that it was a misunderstanding. A journalist had asked him how many pieces were in the collection and he told him 170,000. The journalist thought he meant that was the number of items looted.
As you know, I spent a month researching and writing up a article on this story.
Iraq Antiquities Revisited.
What Donny George did not say is that for the next three months he could have disputed the 170,000 figure AT ANY TIME, but HE DID NOT. In fact, he took every opportunity he could to accuse the Americans of barbarism. Having read my article, I’m sure you recall how John F. Burns admitted that they fucked up because of their prejudices against the American military.
My hatred of the MSM has only increased the closer I have looked at it. This is just another example of lack of follow-up. What an everyday journalist gets away with I would not tolerate with one of my students on their essays and research projects.
Derek, I appreciate you because you’ve been man enough to take it on the chin and fight for your profession’s integrity. But you better buckle up. The ride is going to get bumpy.
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Sorry, forgot to login.
That last post was from Jeffrey — New York.
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I disagree
“newsweek was essentially right”
The supposed mishandling was setting a Koran on a television and standing over it. Since Middle Easterners watch Al Jezeera, it can’t be the TV that’s evil. No, the mishandling really occured when the soldiers didn’t obey Muslim customs to ceremonially wash hands before they gave away free copies of hte holy books. That’s when they were initially defiled.
So maybe our soldiers should lock away their rifles and abandon all common sense so as not to offend…