Tuesday - October 02, 2007

Who Needs Fact Checkers Anyway?

Certainly not the Washington Post.  Seems they just take whatever Fatah gives them and slurps it down.

From the Jerusalem Post’s story:

As the Jerusalem Post’s Palestinian affairs correspondent Khaled Abu Toameh reported Monday, over the weekend he and the newspaper fell victim to a Fatah hoax. Saturday, Abu Toameh was “summoned” to Fatah’s General Intelligence headquarters in Ramallah where he was given a “scoop” - a graphic videotape of the murder of a 16-year-old girl in July perpetrated as a so-called “honor killing.” The Fatah officer in Ramallah supplied Abu Toameh with the phone numbers of two “eye-witnesses” to the episode who would corroborate the story.

It later worked out that the “eye-witnesses” were Fatah militiamen in Gaza. The story was a fabrication. The video was taken in Iraq in April. The purpose of the elaborately crafted tale was clear. Fatah wished to use the Post to project itself as a credible, moderate actor battling the forces of evil and darkness in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

Abu Toameh had written up the story and it appeared on The Jerusalem Post’s Web site on Saturday night. It was removed when the Post was alerted to the hoax and did not appear in the Sunday paper.

Sounds fair. They put it up on their website in good faith, and then when they found out it was a hoax, immediately pulled it.  What about the WaPo?

SPEAKING to The Washington Post on Thursday, Abbas used the story to explain why Israel should feel comfortable giving Fatah all of Judea and Samaria and half of Jerusalem. Responding to a question regarding his view of Israel’s concern that areas transferred to Palestinian control will be used as operational bases for carrying out attacks against its cities Abbas said, “Last night, [our security forces] seized two rockets. We handed [them] over to the Israelis. We are very worried about these deeds and I think we can put an end to all this. Our security apparatus is ready to stop all kinds of violence.”

The Washington Post published the interview without noting that the story was a total fabrication. The “rockets” that Fatah transferred to the IDF were just a pile of metal pipes which had apparently been used as toys by local children. The IDF had already noted that the rockets weren’t real when The Washington Post conducted its interview with Abbas. Unlike Abu Toameh and The Jerusalem Post, The Washington Post and its veteran reporter Lally Weymouth saw no reason to mention that Abbas’s anti-terror credentials were based on nothing but lies manufactured by his own propaganda arms.

No reason to do that.  After all, the story, as reported, fits perfectly into their model and mold.  Nothing to see here folks, just move along.

Posted by Drew458     on 10/02/2007 at 05:35 AM   
Filed Under: • Media-Bias •  
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