Graphic source: BBC
This is what happened today:
"US, Iraqi troops killed 41 Mahdi Army fighters in Baghdad clashes"
This is how NPR reported this event on "Morning Edition" today.
The statement was: "38 people killed in Iraq in the past 24 hours."
If you had not really listened, or since NPR did not identify who was killed, the unfortunate impression is that any number of random persons were killed, civilians and such, and many listeners would understand that simply more violence occurred. Buried within the story is that many fatalities were in fact, "militants."
On NPR's website, the story was re-written: "In Baghdad, the U.S. military is reporting the deaths of 38 Iraqi militants who launched attacks during a sandstorm."
The Philadelphia Inquirer did not run the story.
The BBC world edition ran: DOZENS KILLED IN BAGHDAD CLASHES, as the headline, in small print, "Thirty-eight Shia militia fighters have been killed in two days of fierce clashes in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, the US military has said."
CNN reports the story thusly, "U.S. authorities in Iraq reported more attacks in Baghdad's heavily fortified International Zone Monday following the deaths of 38 militants in battles on Sunday in the eastern section of the city."
In this version, it sounds as if damaging attacks occurred once militants were killed, as if so many were killed and then a counter-offensive followed.
The point I'm trying make here is that news sources are not reporting in a forthright manner. The alternative news sources are scooping the major outlets. Today, you have to look for the news to find a semblance of the truth.
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