Yet more irony

Thanks to Gateway Pundit, an excellent and well-informed blog, we find this story on AP:

Iraq’s Interior Ministry said Thursday it had formed a special unit to monitor news coverage and vowed to take legal action against journalists who failed to correct stories the ministry deemed to be incorrect.

Now, this could be an attempt to silence criticism as

Brig. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, spokesman for the ministry, said the purpose of the special monitoring unit was to find "fabricated and false news that hurts and gives the Iraqis a wrong picture that the security situation is very bad, when the facts are totally different."

Then again, the Iraqi government may well be justifiably fed up with the sort of unfounded, unproven and hysterical stories that have been printed about the country by, errrm, for example AP.

In fact, what has brought about this initiative is the latest story from that fount of international news about the six (or is it eight) Sunnis, supposedly burnt alive by some Shi’ites, a story that originated from an apparently non-existent Captain of Police, Jamil Hussein and which has not been backed by a scrap of recognizable evidence.

So, is AP worried about this? Goodness me, no. AP Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll, who cropped up in the Green Helmet saga, has asserted and reasserted that her organization is absolutely in the right. She has not actually produce “Captain” Jamil Hussein or any evidence of the story but she has shown herself to be outraged at the very suggestion that AP could be accused of not telling the truth.

The supposed evidence has been dissected by numerous other journalists and bloggers. Michelle Malkin gives a full round-up with links. Will this change AP or any other part of the MSM? Why do I get this overwhelming sense of scepticism?

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