Bill O’Reilly on Fox New’s “O’Reilly Factor” pointed last night to a LA Times story that quotes a spokesman for Saddam Hussein in its headline. The story is supposed to be an examination of the current thinking and mood of the people in Baghdad. Now tell me how you are supposed to get an objective quote from the propaganda mouthpiece of a totalitarian regime. This was the headline, quoting right from the journalist’s Iraqi government guide: “Every Day Gets Worse and Worse.” What is she supposed to say? And it conveys the incorrect impression that this is what the Iraqi people feel.
“Every day gets worse and worse,” Sahar, a 23-year-old with a birdlike voice, said with a sigh Wednesday. “I can’t imagine what will be next week.”
Sahar, who did not give her last name, had been assigned by the Information Ministry to guide, translate and keep an eye on foreign journalists. She had just returned from Al Shaab, an outlying district on the north side of Baghdad, where two missiles hit a busy street at 11:30 a.m., killing at least 15 people and injuring 30.
She said she had witnessed the burnt corpses and strewn body parts, the missile craters, the twisted automobiles and the vacant faces of dozens of people who had lost loved ones or were left homeless by the twin blasts. It was, she said, the worst thing she had ever seen.
“It is like Judgment Day,” she said.
We’re supposed to trust the observations and conclusions of a paid shill for Saddam Hussein. And then we’re supposed to believe that Iraqis on the street will free to be critical of Saddam or supportive of the Coalition with the reporter’s government minder standing there? Come on, Times editors, do your job and use some judgment.
