Washington Post on Debka & Misinformation

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Bob Drzyzgula <bob () drzyzgula org>
Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2003 10:04:02 -0500
To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: Washington Post on Debka & Misinformation

 From http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60157-2003Mar20.html
 
 A Permanent Exclusive
 
 By Howard Kurtz
 Washington Post Staff Writer
 Thursday, March 20, 2003; 6:56 AM
 
 Even before first bombs hit, we had the first
 spectacular media blunder of the war.
 
 "Kurdish sources confirm that Iraqi deputy prime
 minister Tariq Aziz is in their hands and is being
 questioned by US intelligence officials," the Israeli
 Web site Debka.com blared yesterday morning.
 
 Shortly after that, Al Bawaba, which dubs itself
 "The Middle East Gateway," ran this lead: "The Iraqi
 opposition is trying to verify reports Iraqi Deputy
 Prime Minister Tariq Aziz may have been killed on
 his way to the Kurdish part of the country."
 
 All of which evaporated when Aziz appeared live
 on Iraq's Al-Arabiya television to make clear that
 he had neither defected or been killed, declaring
 instead that an invasion would be "a catastrophe"
 for America. The rumor had become the news, news that
 Saddam's regime needed to knock down.
 
 Debka.com reported at the same time . in an "DEBKAfile
 exclusive" . that "US warplanes taking off from the
 USS Abraham Lincoln are bombing Iraqi military targets
 along the US-IK line of advance." No other news outlet
 had word of this early start to the war. (It was a
 rumor that would turn out to be true--only it would
 happen much later. Jerusalem-based Debka, which also
 publishes a Hebrew edition, has been selected as a
 hot site by Forbes and USA Today.)
 
 The good news is that the bogus reports weren't
 blared all over cable TV (although they covered Aziz's
 I'm-still-here appearance). But they underscore how
 quickly false information can surface in a wartime
 situation and how careful journalists must be not to
 get swept along by a tide of rumor and misinformation.
 
 [...]


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