Fact And Fiction In The Fog Of War
On Tuesday, CBSNews.com posted an Associated Press story about a bombing in Ramadi, Iraq, that killed at least 18 boys at a park frequented by young soccer players. For roughly 30 minutes, it was the top story on the Web site.
Then producers saw another wire report that questioned the story, based on statements from a military spokesperson who spoke of a controlled explosion in same area that wounded 30 but caused no fatalities.
"We had to move the story out of the number one position, insert the conflicting material and change the headline to reflect the conflicting information," said Dan Collins, senior producer at CBSNews.com.
"It's not unusual to get conflicting information on a breaking news story, but I thought this was very unusual," said Collins. "Iraqi police and the government stood by [the original story] for hours after U.S. sources revealed their information."
In addition, it became difficult for CBSNews.com to independently verify the information. "We found out there isn't phone service to Ramadi," said Collins, "So no one in Baghdad could call folks in Ramadi to straighten it out."
According to the Associated Press, a senior U.S military official said yesterday that the original report of a car bombing was "false" and "suggested that rumors began circulating after a controlled detonation by U.S. forces caused injuries in Ramadi."
After that, the Los Angeles Times reported that "Iraqi television dropped the report Wednesday night, and some officials in Ramadi backed off their early statements, saying people may have been mixing up the purported incident with another bombing."
Added the Times: "The one clear thing to emerge from the still-murky reports was just how easy it is to inflame already searing Sunni-Shiite tensions in Iraq, where al-Maliki's Shiite-led government is struggling to contain sectarian bloodshed, and how difficult it is to get to the truth."