CNN, NYT Boost WikiLeaks War Crimes Gambit, Downplay/Omit Key Evidence: MSM Joins Daily Kos, Neo-Communists in Renewed 'BushCo' Recriminations

I don't normally attack CNN as the "Communist News Network," but this time the epithet sticks. See, "Video Shows Deaths of Two Reuters Journalists in Iraq in 2007." The story went live at Noon today, but there's no mention of the fact-checking by right-bloggers such as Jawa Report. And note this passsage:

The U.S. investigation into the attack found that the helicopter gunship's crew mistook the journalists' cameras for weapons while seeking out insurgents who had been firing at American troops in the area. The fliers estimated they killed 12 to 15 Iraqis in the attack.

This is falsely reported. The insurgents were armed, which was seen clearly at Jawa Report and in the Pentagon's own internal intelligence memo as well. That document includes pictures from one of the Reuters photographers, which shows a U.S. Army humvee just down the road from the battle scene. Leftists claimed no on-the-ground contingents were in close vicinity, and left-wing media reports have refused to correct the initial disinformation:

Since all evidence shows the ROE were observed, the left plans to trump up war crimes on the basis of the attack on the rescue van (and this second strike was also completely within the ROE, as reported here earlier), and the alleged cover-up by the military. WikiLeaks posted this tweet today:

And here's Joan McCarter at Daily Kos, "The Fallout from Collateral Murder":

The killing of innocents is the collateral damage that is inevitable in war, and what makes a war of choice rather than necessity that much more immoral. That this was a war of choice creates even greater responsibility on the U.S. to be honest in how it conducts that war, and honest with the American people who are sending their sons and daughters to fight it.

There's also the practical fact that cover-ups are almost always far more damaging than the event they are meant to hide. In this case, because two of the innocents killed were connected with a media organization, it was inevitable that the truth would come out. But it's compounded when it sustains the myth that war is not hell and that the U.S. doesn't conduct war that way ....

Nothing about this war was done right by the Bush administration, from making the choice to go to war against a country that did not pose a threat to us, to creating a vast fabric of lies to justify that choice, to deciding to torture to back up those lies. These were dangerous, immoral, and extremely damaging decisions. That damage can't be undone, but it can be mitigated. The only way to do it, though, is with sunlight, even if that means looking backward.

The "looking backward" remark is a rebuke to President Obama, who pledged his administration to looking forward when pressed with demands for indictments of former Bush administration officials.

Note how the New Yorker has gotten into the act as well, "The WikiLeaks Video and the Rules of Engagement."

And scheduled for tomorrow's New York Times is this breathless report, which pooh-poohs evidence of armed insurgents with the Reuters photographers, "Iraq Video Brings Notice to a Web Site." The newspaper's screencap shows the targets taking fire, not the images of RPG toting combatants:

I'm also embedding additional videos, including more WikiLeaks propaganda, etc., to give an indication of how the press has sucked down the neo-communist party line without criticism. All of this at NYT, "Wikileaks Defends Release of Video Showing Killing of Journalists in Iraq. But see also, "Military Can't Find Its Copy of Iraq Killing Video":

Finally, here's more of the meme, from Stanley Kubrick, that radical leftists are spreading: