AP & Eason Jordan & MSM Self-Responsibility (Update:AP contemptuous)

Hate the Sin; Love the Sinner. A known sinner against elemental standards of journalism, Eason Jordan, points his finger at Associated Press for its journalistic sins.

If an Iraqi police captain by the name of Jamil Hussein exists, there is no convincing evidence of it - and that means the Associated Press has a journalistic scandal on its hands that will fester until the AP deals with it properly.

This controversy and the AP's handling of it call into question the credibility, integrity, and smarts of one of the world's biggest, most influential, most respected news organizations, the New York-based Associated Press.

Eason Jordan’s report has two telling statements today. After his sources in Iraq have investigated whether the Associated Press’ source for 61 stories of mayhem in Iraq actually exists:

In statements, the AP insists Captain Hussein is real, insists he has been known to the AP and others for years, and insists the immolation episode occurred based on multiple eyewitnesses.
But efforts by two governments, several news organizations, and bloggers have failed to produce such evidence or proof that there is a Captain Jamil Hussein. The AP cannot or will not produce him or convincing evidence of his existence.

It is striking that no one has been able to find a family member, friend, or colleague of Captain Hussein. Nor has the AP told us who in the AP's ranks has actually spoken with Captain Hussein. Nor has the AP quoted Captain Hussein once since the story of the disputed episode.

Therefore, in the absence of clear and compelling evidence to corroborate the AP's exclusive story and Captain Hussein's existence, we must conclude for now that the AP's reporting in this case was flawed.

To make matters worse, Captain Jamil Hussein was a key named source in more than 60 AP stories on at least 25 supposed violent incidents over eight months.

Until this controversy is resolved, every one of those AP reports is tainted.

Eason Jordan also, obliquely, comments on his own culpability for his deal with Saddam Hussein’s regime to softpedal reporting when he was CNN’s bureau chief in Baghdad, and then his own comments accusing the U.S. military of targeting reporters.

Having learned from my own successes and failures and those of others, I know that a journalistic scandal can be handled effectively only when the news organization's management deals with it proactively, constructively, and transparently, with a readiness to admit any mistake, to apologize for it, and to take appropriate corrective action.

The AP has failed to do so in this case.

I, therefore, urge the AP to appoint an independent panel to determine the facts about the disputed report, to determine whether Iraqi Police Captain Jamil Hussein exists, and to share the panel's full findings and recommendations with the public.

Until this matter is resolved, the AP's credibility will suffer.
Meantime, IraqSlogger and others will doggedly pursue the truth in this case.

While Jordan is at it, he should follow-up on two related matters:

One, there is more to this than just Jamil Hussein. Flopping Aces blog, which blew Jamil Hussein and the AP’s cover, points to similar indications that three other AP Iraqi reporters are using highly suspect sources:

So far we have Qais al-Bashir, Sameer N. Yacoub, and Muhieddin Rashad as reporters who have used and are continuing to use suspect sources.

The matter goes further than just the Associated Press. Western media in Iraq, as in the Palestinian areas, is relying upon indigenous stringers for much of its reporting. These stringers own loyalties and affiliations are questionable, including their attachment to factual reporting. While not applicable to all, there is an accumulation of solid evidence that they are an integral part of the war strategy of our foes, to spread harmful disinformation to undermine policies and create discouragement.

I, and many others, have frequently commented and provided evidence of this widespread and most serious problem, to apparently no avail. It’s well past time that all of our major media publicly and convincingly share with its readers and viewers exactly what controls are in place, and how they will be improved, to stop being a fourth estate fifth column. At this point, it’s a knowing conspiracy of silence, at least.

As Jordan now does with respect to the AP, I’ve frequently called upon the AP to credibly investigate its practices, for example here. Mark Tapscott called upon “the American Society of Newspaper Editors to oversee the appointment and conduct of an independent panel of respected journalists and outside evidentiary experts to determine the truth behind Captain Jamil Hussein and all other sources similarly in doubt.” So far, no self-responsibility from our press barons.

Second, I and others might have more confidence in Eason Jordan’s reliability as a reformed reporter if he would come clean about his past sins. Investigative columnist Thomas Lipscomb looked into Eason Jordan’s sin: (reprint of Lipscomb’s Editor & Publisher column)

In that case, the issue was simple enough. Did or didn't Eason Jordan state, at the off-the-record World Economic Forum Conference in Davos, Switzerland, on January 27, something remotely like the charge that U.S. troops had targeted journalists in Iraq and killed a dozen of them or so? It didn’t matter what the opinions of Barney Frank, Christopher Dodd, or the blogger attendee who spilled the beans, Rony Abovitz, thought. It doesn’t even matter what Jordan said about what he said. And it doesn't matter if he apologized for it or not. The World Economic Forum had videotaped the “off the record” meeting. All CNN and Jordan had to do was to ask the tape be released….

Not only was there a tape, but CNN admits it never asked for it, as CNN spokeswoman Megan Mahoney has revealed to me. There was no problem with getting a copy of the notorious “off the record” tape from the World Economic Forum. When I asked WEF’s Klaus Schwab whether he would have made a tape available, cut to just Eason Jordan’s remarks, and give it to Jordan and CNN, he replied: “Of course. And they could make any distribution of it they wished.”

I won’t go so far as Flopping Aces, that,

NO story we get out of Iraq can be trusted anymore until the news services admit their mistakes and quit using these biased sources. Or, if using stringers then independently verify the story. Talk to family members of the victims, get pictures of the scene, in other words gather evidence as any good cop would.

BUT, until there is a wholesale accounting and reform by the major media, and by Eason Jordan as an exemplar of its sins, we’ll have to continue to hate the sins, and strongly suspect the motives of major media’s deniers of sin or their only partial repentance. Hardly a good start for a 2007 of recovery in public confidence in the major media.

UPDATE: The AP’s reply has to be seen to be believed that the AP can be so contemptuous of its client newspapers and their readers, not to mention of elemental journalism or truth.