"This week several newspapers and agencies reported that Iraqi police had
found 20 beheaded corpses in Salman Pak, just south of Baghdad.
AFP did
not carry the report after its sources were unable to confirm the rumour.
'It now appears that the story was completely false and fabricated by
unknown sources,' a statement from the US military said."
While it is true that they are operating in a war zone, that only makes the checking of sources and facts that much more important. It is stories of this nature that cause the public to mistrust the media, it is a great story to print about dead bodies found, but with the situation inside Iraq right now, they could have found some real news to cover. I know this will be spun by members of the right, as another main stream media attempt to make the Iraq war seem worse than it is. Honestly it is bad enough, that you don't need to make up stories to make it appear worse. It is probably just a lazy reporter, and editorial staff behind this though.
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