Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Language
The media, even including Amy Goodman on Democracy Now!, have reported a story in the news thusly:
The US military has revealed US jets shot down an Iranian unmanned surveillance aircraft last month.No. The correct way to report this story is: "The U.S. military claims US jets..." As I have written about many times, the U.S. military is the most unreliable news source in the world. Using the U.S. military is a source for a news story is akin to sourcing a story to Tommy Flanagan, the Pathological Liar. Remember this is the very same U.S. military who repeatedly claimed that Iran was furnishing weapons to Iraqi resistance fighters, providing "evidence" with no more credibility than George Bush's "evidence" for WMD in Iraq.
Is this story true? Perhaps. Even likely. But that's still no reason to assign credibility to the U.S. military. Guilty (of lying) until proven innocent is the only possible standard one can apply to information emanating from that source. Until there is independent information confirming this incident, or any claim from the U.S. military, the only proper assumption is that it's a complete fabrication.
