Eugene David<br>...The One-Minute Pundit

Posted 2:10 PM by Gene

We understand why Curley's (Nyuk! Nyuk! Nyuk!) STOOGES put this LAST in their FAQ:

Q: Where do AP reporters get their information? Do they rely on just one side?

A: The AP's reporters reach out each day to a wide variety of officials and other sources -- including the U.S. military, the Iraqi national government, Iraqi local officials, officials at private hospitals, eyewitnesses and regular Iraqis.

Often, each side tells a different story -- for example, the U.S. military and Iraqi local police often release significantly different casualty counts after some type of violence or incident. The AP attempts to sift through the various, conflicting accounts to get the most-accurate facts.

The AP always includes both sides of the story. It never publishes any allegation against the U.S. military unless it first tries to obtain the military's side of the story. In 2003, for example, a claim by Iraqis in Fallujah that American soldiers had killed a civilian was investigated for more than a week by AP journalists. No story was ever written after exhaustive interviews uncovered holes in the claimants' story.

The AP does attempt to also get information from insurgents, or from their sympathizers -- for example, the AP sometimes describes insurgent propaganda posted at mosques. This is an important part of the story. It is impossible for Western readers to get a clear and complete idea of events in Iraq without knowing the insurgents' strategy and morale.

The AP never works with, cooperates with or protects insurgents. The AP does not pay money for material (except for salaries to its own staff), and thus guards carefully against inadvertently providing any financial resources to insurgents.

We will not second-guess reporters who put their lives on the line to report from Iraq, although putting your life on the line as a reporter is not quite the same as doing it as a SOLDIER. Nor will we automatically assume the STOOGES side against us, though the THE OSAMA CHANNEL's shenanigans prove how easy that is. But CURLEY & CO. would not have issued a FAQ if they were doing a job BEYOND REPROACH.