Let’s take the latest reports about how US interrogators and guards have been treating the Koran, and see how various news outlets are presenting them.
Nothing new here. Just a reminder that the truth is presented as a story, and stories can be told in different ways, with different effects.
Reality? That’s another story.
Let us begin:
Washington Post:
“Inmates alleged Koran abuse”
Al-Jazeera:
“FBI memo tells of Quran incident”
“An FBI agent wrote in a document that a detainee held at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, had accused American jailers there of flushing the Quran down a toilet.”
LA Times:
“Inquiry Finds ‘Mishandling’ of Koran at Gitmo”
NY Times:
“No Intentional Abuse of Koran at Guantánamo, General Says”
Globe and Mail (Canada)
“U.S. confirms Koran `mishandling’, not flushing”
Le Monde (Paris)
“Des rapports du FBI semblent confirmer les profanations du Coran par les geôliers américains à la prison de Guantanamo” [FBI reports seem to confirm that the Koran was profaned by American jailers in Guantanamo]
FoxNews.com
“Koran ‘Mishandling’
“Probe substantiates five cases of mistreatment of holy text at Gitmo, but finds no evidence book was flushed in toilet”
All of which goes to show, I guess, how vulnerable we are when we rely on a single source for our news. None of the headlines and leads above actually lie, but all of them select certain parts of the story to emphasize, leading to very different impressions–especially for readers who skim quickly through the news.
But notice one thing: the most pro-Bush spin of this story is found in . . . The New York Times! That bastion of liberal bias. Yeah. Fox was actually more balanced on this one.
