The Decline and Fall of the Western Press

Coroner Says U.S. Forces Unlawfully Shot Reporter reports the Post on A18 today. Karla Adam and Kevin Sullivan.

PostWatch Says Washington Post Leaves Out Key Details, for reasons best known to its editors. I can say that because Stephen Spruiell commented on the case Friday. Among them is the fact that the reporter, Terry Lloyd, was unembedded, which is very brave and equally risky when you're running around an active battlefield. There's more that was left out, including this:

Despite the coroner's inflammatory accusations, he admitted that his inquest:

was unable to determine whether the bullets that killed Lloyd in southern Iraq on March 22, 2003, were fired by U.S. ground forces or helicopters.

That's a pretty damning admission, because a colleague of Lloyd's who survived the attack told the AP that, "the forces in a tank would have been able to see that they were firing at a civilian vehicle, but a helicopter would not."

The Post gets AP you know. Which also said this, as Spruiell notes:

The court watched a video Tuesday, filmed by a U.S. serviceman attached to one of the tanks accused of firing at the reporters' cars. The tape opens with images of Lloyd's vehicle and the Iraqi truck burning amid gunfire. The tanks drive to the cars and inspect them. A minivan — possibly the ambulance — appears and more shots are fired. At the end of the tape, a U.S. soldier shouts, "It's some media personnel! That's media down there!"

Does the Post tell you that? No. Not in the version shown Friday night for Saturday's edition.

The British coroner is seeking some kind of prosecution. Cameraman Daniel Demoustier wants a "war crimes" prosecution. The term is hard to take seriously anymore, it is flung about so casually. Same thing happened to the word "racist" so well done there. Newspapers used to be taken seriously too when we thought they tried to tell us everything we needed to be minimally informed.