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| Home Front: Politix |
| JAY AMBROSE: News story wrong? |
| 2004-10-26 |
| The New York Times and CBS joined forces with little more than a week to go in the election to produce a blockbuster news story that made the administration look incompetent and handed John Kerry an issue with which to pummel President Bush. There is a problem, however. The story may well be wrong. The gist of the news was that some 380 tons of highly dangerous explosives had disappeared in Iraq after the U.S. invasion. But it is not clear there were still explosives there when American troops arrived in 2003. NBC News said its embedded reporter was on hand when the facility was captured and could vouch that the place had been stripped of explosives. The Pentagon seemed less certain, but other information it reported makes the story's presumption of laxity seem misplaced: Coalition forces have destroyed some 240,000 tons of armaments and explosives in Iraq since the war began. It's always a danger when investigative stories of such seeming magnitude as this one occur with so little time left before Election Day. No matter how diligent journalists reporting the story have been, the truth of things may refuse to disclose itself completely until still more journalists and officials have scoured the terrain, a process that can take a long time. Meanwhile a story that could turn out to be false could have a major impact on who the leader of this nation will be. Some advice to voters: Be skeptical of this story, but don't fret about a lack of issues. There are plenty still out there. |
| Posted by:Fred |