Media dishonesty

Here is a report I found listing some examples of media dishonesty. It is biased (sic) to examples from the USA but they do cover some matters of interest to British readers, including the theft of antiquities from the National Museum of Iraq in 2003. At the time the headlines shouted "Looters strip Iraqi National Museum of its antiquities" and the detail ran alongthe lines of "Looters have ransacked the Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad, stealing or destroying thousands of priceless artefacts. As much of Baghdad descended into chaos after the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime last week, a dozen looters broke into Iraq's biggest archaeological museum, shattering ancient pottery, overturning statues, and escaping with masterpieces. Surveying the smashed display cases at the museum last night, Nabhal Amin, the deputy director, struggled to hold back the tears. "They have looted or destroyed 170,000 items of antiquity dating back thousands of years," she said. "They were worth billions of dollars."" That was from the Telegrpah on 13.04.03. Of course it was blamed on the American tropps, the Museum depity director, Ms Amin, said "The Americans were supposed to protect the museum. If they had just one tank and two soldiers nothing like this would have happened. I hold the American troops responsible." She added: "They know that this is a museum. They protect oil ministries but not the cultural heritage."" That from the same Telegraph article.

Of course the whole story was a massive exageration due to reporters reporting what they thought would be a good story ratherthan the facts. The Telegraph now reports that "Officials at the National Museum of Iraq have blamed shoddy reporting amid the "fog of war" for creating the impression that the majority of the institution's 170,000 items were looted in the aftermath of the fall of Baghdad. A carefully prepared storage plan, used in the Iran-Iraq war and the first Gulf war, ensured that tens of thousands of pieces were saved, they said. They now believe that the number of items taken was in the low thousands, and possibly hundreds...Donny George, research director, said: "There was a mistake. Someone asked us what is the number of pieces in the whole collection. We said over 170,000, and they took that as the number lost. "Reporters came in and saw empty shelves and reached the conclusion that all was gone. But before the war we evacuated all of the small pieces and emptied the show cases except for fragile or heavy material that was difficult to move." Some pieces were hidden in the vaults of the central bank and others at secret locations, he added. Thousands of manuscripts and scrolls were kept at a civilian bunker in north-west Baghdad and had been returned."

Of course the original story was given great prominence by the world's media and the correction hardly any, so the impression that has lasted is one of massive larceny due to the indolence of the American military.