How disappointing for those that considered the finding of 20 beheaded bodies to be manna from heaven.... it never happened.
I have learned in my short time of blogging that it is wise to verify a story before writing about it.
So many stories that are blasted across the web end up being rumor reported as news, then when the truth comes out, the corrections are never blasted as far and wide as the original stories are.
Too bad others don't learn that lesson.
Note to the media....maybe you should see the bodies before reporting about them, then you won't look like the hacks you are acting like.
Hat tip to Gateway Pundit for catching the BBC report and then following up by calling the Multi-National Force and verifying, just to find out...oooops... no bodies.
From Gateway Pundit:
(Tuesday AM) I just spoke with Maj. Winfield Danielson with MNF-Iraq. After investigating the "20 headless bodies" story, Multi-National Force Iraq has no record that this incident took place yesterday near Baquba (Bakubah).
There is no evidence to back up the story.
Maj. Winfield Danielson gave permission to quote MNF-I.
The story is not accurate.
BBC report:
Iraqi troops have rescued eight members of a group of 11 tribal leaders abducted in Baghdad on Sunday, the Iraqi defence ministry has said.This isn't the first time that when our media couldn't find any bad news to report they simply made up their own.
Spokesman Maj Gen Mohammed al-Askari said the sheikhs were freed in a raid on a house following a tip off.
The troops are searching for the remaining members of the group but reports said one had been found dead.
Meanwhile, Iraqi police denied earlier reports that 20 headless bodies had been found dumped near Baquba.
There was also the case of the Burning Six, which never happened but it also got blasted across the internet.
To top it off, this isn't even the first time a false story about "beheaded bodies" has been splashed across the web and a little fact checking has forced the media to issue corrections. Of course only some of the media did so, and they did not issue those corrections as far and wide as the original story.
Those are just a few examples of the false reporting we have seen from our supposed journalists.
As we showed yesterday, there is no shortage of news from Iraq, there is just a shortage of reporting it, because it was good news, unlike the reporting of this false story.
I am sure all those corrections will be imminent.....NOT.
I see today that Time is still reporting on this event that never happened, so I went over to Gateway Pundit since he has been following this closely and getting on the record statements from the MNF and here is what I found:
After reading TIME Magazine's depressing report this morning I followed up with MNF-Iraq and again spoke with Maj. Winfield Danielson. Major Danielson told me that they had not received any word from Iraqi authorities that this event took place. (This is two days after the bodies were supposedly discovered.) Major Danielson also explained that if there was a record of this event that MNF-I would have seen the report. They have not seen any follow up report on this incident.
There is no evidence of this event.
There is no official report on this event.
There are no photos of this event.
TIME magazine says "20 decapitated bodies" were found near Baquba.
Prove it.
Blackfive adds: "Why it sucks to write for a dead tree mag"
It seems that reporting good news is out of the question (As stated by Robin Wright--in an email to me-- of Wapo and Barbara Starr of CNN, which is in partnership with Time) when so much is available and Time seems content to simply report on news that has already been shown to be false and made up.
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