How propaganda gets from the ground in Iraq to the nightly news in America

NBC's Brian Williams reported tonight that "Iraqi civilians" said that a US airstrike had killed not insurgents, but innocent Iraqis. Williams' report was based on an Associated Press story by Thomas Wagner and a CENTCOM news release. Williams left out a couple of telling details that even Wagner felt obligated to include in the AP story.

Here's the pertinent text from the CENTCOM release:

While conducting a combat air patrol, crewmembers from an F -15 observed 20 men arrive in four vehicles at the crater site of a previously-detonated IED which had killed five U.S. and two Iraqi Soldiers on Oct. 15. The terrorists were in the process of emplacing another IED in the same spot when the F- 15 engaged them with a precision-guided bomb, resulting in the death of terrorists on the ground.

Brian Williams did not mention any of this tonight. He simply left the impression that the American pilot lied about his target. About what you'd expect from Williams, who has indicated that he sees little difference between Iraqi terrorist insurgents and the American Founding Fathers.

More at The Dread Pundit Bluto.

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