You need better sources, and better sources need you (II)

I got a very nice thank-you postcard from Michael Yon yesterday (I had sent him a few bucks). He is on his way back to Iraq (via Afghanistan) to do the stunning, independent, first-hand reporting that you are not seeing in the MSM. Examples here and here. If you want to know what’s happening in Iraq, you need sources like Michael Yon.

Michael Totten is already there, in Kurdistan via Turkey. His approach is much more cultural, ad hoc and from the hip. He really gives you a feel for the place.

They are both doing this on their own, so click through and give them a few bucks if you can.

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Why do you need these guys? Because our mainstream media are worse than biased. They are straight-up gullible.

It is becoming regular practice for terrorists (and their backers) to stage events for the cameras, knowing that there is a very good chance that it will be reported as fact in the US. Here’s the New York Times on March 27:

The bodies of 30 beheaded men were found on a main highway near Baquba this evening, providing more evidence that the death squads in Iraq are becoming out of control.

Awful. How did the Times find out about it?

Interior Ministry officials said a driver discovered the bodies heaped in a pile next to a highway that links Baghdad to Baquba, a volatile city northeast of the capital that has been wracked by sectarian and insurgent violence.

“Iraq Ministry officials” heard it from “a driver”. Terrible. Who had the grisly task of recovering them?

Iraqi army troops were waiting tonight for American support before venturing into the insurgent-infested area to retrieve them. [...]

But it is not at all clear who killed the 30 men found beheaded this evening. The area where they were discovered is mostly Sunni Arab and controlled by Sunni insurgents. It would be very difficult for Shiite death squads to operate there. Interior Ministry officials said they did not have enough information tonight to identify the victims.

I’ll cut to chase: nobody found 30 bodies. Headline in the NY Times. Heartbreaking news to any feeling person, and evidence that Iraq is spinning out of control. And also entirely false.

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I was first turned on to this phenomenon last fall when I read this article which deconstructs a series of “action shots” of insurgents in Falluja. All staged for the camera, it turns out, and happily published by the AP.

It also turns out this was the regular beat of AP photographer Bilal Hussein, who has an extraordinary knack for getting the most evocative, behind-the-scenes insurgent photos. He won a Pulitzer Prize. How does he do it? Michelle has a lot more.

Gullibility: even more dangerous than bias.