The story of CNN’s bogus North Korean nuke plant photos seems to have legs of its own, as links to our original exclusive report (and its followups here and then here) continue to sweep around the net with surprising popularity.
And in print, The University of Texas’ Daily Texan picks up on the story of the Iran/N. Korea/Iraq satellite photos (all of the same nuclear facility as it turns out, presumably in Iran) which ran on CNN’s website, and then were found also to have been running at least a year earlier on the U.S. government funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty website at least a year prior to having shown up on CNN. On RFE/RL they were variously used to illustrate nuke or WMD sites in Iran, North Korea and Iraq!
The unbylined Daily Texan opinion piece points out the troubling “easily duped” state of the U.S. media by describing it as “whacky-tragic”. They follow up our reporting with a similar statement from a different RFE/RL employee than the one we spoke to. Though, notably, like us, it seems they were similarly unable to get any statement from CNN on the matter.
Advancing the story a touch, their piece closes with…
There is no question both Iran and North Korea have nuclear programs – Iran admits to researching nuclear technology for non-weapon energy production. North Korea says it has nuclear bombs. But the media has not had good luck with satellite photography; before the invasion of Iraq, then Secretary of State Colin Powell used satellite photography to make the case before the U.N. that Iraq had WMD laboratories. That turned out to be false. What, in retrospect, were probably fire trucks became “decontamination vehicles,” and flatbed trucks became “mobile weapons labs.”
Considering this administration’s willingness to misrepresent the facts to the tragiwacky media and ambitions to use propaganda, until satellite photography is fully opened to the public, it should enjoy the same skepticism one would reserve for a report in Chinese news agency Xinhua or communist-run Pravda.
We appreciate that they’ve given “blogger Brad Friedman” credit for first reporting the story. And our thanks to BRAD BLOG reader “Ziggyczar” for bringing the piece to our attention!
We have continued over the last week to get comment from CNN, and will continue to do so. We will, of course, report here when and if we are able to get one.
Very, very cool. Great job, Brad!
Good job! That’s got to be a pain in Dubya’s ass.
Have you been keeping up on the Gannon-Gate story?
The Nashua Advocate, Raw Story and AmericaBlog all have stuff developing rapidly. I’d link but I know you have them. This is moving very fast. Watch out for dis info. People are sweating and that can only be good.
Brad,
Just asking… but is it possible to have a new thread somewhere easy on the Guckert story? It is moving faster then fast and a place to dump links from everybody would be great. As it stands now we have to go back to a thread that is several days old and cluttered.
And kudos on busting CNN!!
Congrats, again, Brad!! You find ’em, the media taks along behind wagging its tail and reporting your reports. That’s the way to keep things moving.
"tags," Peg C, "tags."
Open thread for Gannon/Guckert … now up! Go get ’em!
And still not a word from CNN…bet those folks are sweating bullets over there. Wonder who’ll take the fall for this one?
It just keeps gettin better ‘n’ better in this blog world, ya know?
Sorry, I know I’m enjoying this way more than I should, and karma will probably bite me on the ass for it, but I really like to see the arrogant and dishonest taken down a few notches.
Brad Freidman for PRESIDENT!!!
I knew it!!! I’m no dummy!!
I am so proud to be a part of this rapidly growing, now famous blog.
Brad knows the game, and he’s got class, too.
And he’s fast:
varrrooooooooooooommmm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Brad:
David Lindorff (who broke the "bulge" story on Salon.com) emailed me and said that I should send this story to Fair.org. He said "They’ll really go for it."
So I did.
the email he gave me is:
jnaureckas@fair.org if anyone else would like to do the same.
This is media,
FOR the people,
OF the people,
BY the people.
I believe in blogging more than I do our own government.
Yo Government, we are about to Check and Balance your ass!
This just further proves the inept state of our MSM. America’s MSM has been in crisis for a long time, and shows no signs of coming out of it. They are not unbiased, they do not investigate anything, they are spoonfed stories that they just pass as news, and they suppress real news. The big story will be when someone comes forward to expose all this. But where will this story be? It won’t be in the MSM, because the story will be about THEM.
I think the MSM is lazy. They’ve been able to get away with it for so long because there really was no alternative. Guess what guys? Game over!!
This is great! Remember…ELECTION FRAUD! WAR FRAUD! ENERGY FRAUD! RELIGION FRAUD! MEDIA FRAUD! They’re all tied together!
I sense the cooling towers of the White House power plant beginning to crack! As they circle their wagons ever closer and make their circles ever tighter, they will eventually all choke on their nuclear drool!
Will MSM save them? Stay tuned!
BUSTED CNN! "Confabulated Neocon News"
"Conformers News Network", For those that still believe Media is on the side of the public, if this does not sway your perspective; one can only surmize you suffer a form of mental retardation. Fret not handicaped one! There is a reversal of this condition, though Difficult over time one can reverse the negative effects of the alphabet medias impact on your ability to think for yourself and by seeking other media outlets you shall be inlightened with positive results. You must, if you accept this prognosiss, turn off the boob tube and begin your quest. 😀
The trick in analyzing the media is to learn to discriminate between entertainment, where the talking heads perform an endless parody of reporting and analysis, and real, honest-to-gosh "noos."
"Noos" isn’t pretty; it’s very rarely entertaining, and it’s certainly not a poor imitation of itself. You’ll find it on Link TV (I saw a docu-report yesterday on a US-backed mass-murder in northern Afghanistan – absolutely horrifying), on Air America and Democracy Now broadcasts. These are all privately-funded or viewer supported, not corporate and commercially funded. Even PBS and NPR might as well be viewed as "corporate" now, because they receive governmental funds.
As in all other things Amurrkan, follow the money.
I might be wrong, but doesn’t it look like the Bush’s were pasted into the following photo?
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/e...0/bush.europe/
It’ currently on the CNN home page as well.
I have heard that may be over enhanced contrast or even caused by a flash going off from a different angle simultaneously. Sorry, heheh.
Congrats Brad Blog! 🙂