[Vision2020] Media Watch

Mushroom mushroom@moscow.com
Thu, 06 Feb 2003 09:01:13 -0800


If you read the front page of today's Lewiston Morning Trib,
you would conclude there is a definite link between Iraq and
al-Qaida. 
The story begins "He's the closest thing to a smoking gun in
Washington's intelligence arsenal, a man who could finally
and definitively link Saddam Hussein with the world's most
notorious terrorist and push reluctant allies to support a
U.S.-led war against Iraq."

The headline is "U.S. says Saddam is harboring a notorious
al-Qaida terrorist."

Only in paragraph 9, tucked away inside on page 3, do we
find that the man in question is in a northern region
"outside Saddam's control." (The group in control of the
region, as revealed on television news last night, is
actively engaged in trying to "destroy Saddam.")

I am not pretending to know what is going on in Iraq; I am
only pointing out that the story in the Trib contained
within itself evidence that the first eight paragraphs were
misleading.

It is news that the "U.S. says Saddam is harboring a
notorious al-Qaida terrorist," and maybe it's big enough
news to put on the front page. But paragraph two of the
story then should point out that what the U.S. says is
patently untrue.

I don't for a moment think the Trib is part of the U.S.
pro-war propaganda effort. But the result is the same in
this case.

Don Coombs