Insaneosphere

If it isn't screaming about how some photo editor put Bush in a burqa, the insaneosphere on the right is yelling about how verified stories from the AP are wrong, wrong, wrong. In another time, maybe the AP would have backed down and retracted their true story of Iraqis being incinerated in front of police who do nothing about it. But it's not 2002 and threats of sedition aren't what they used to be, especially when the journalists have got the goods.

The Associated Press is standing by its report that six Sunni men were burned to death in Baghdad Friday by Shiites, even though U.S. military officials have accused the wire service of relying on a source who "is not who he claimed he was," an Iraqi police captain.

Military officials also say they cannot confirm that the incident took place and have asked AP to retract or correct the story, which was repeated by media around the world and cited as a grim example of Shiites taking revenge for a deadly bombing that killed more than 200 people a day before.

"The attempt to question the existence of the known police officer who spoke to the AP is frankly ludicrous and hints at a certain level of desperation to dispute or suppress the facts of the incident in question," AP International Editor John Daniszewski said in a statement e-mailed to On Deadline this afternoon.

He added that "we have conducted a thorough review of the sourcing and reporting involved and plan to move a more detailed report about the entire incident soon, with greater detail provided by multiple eye witnesses."

"The police captain cited in our story has long been known to the AP reporters," Daniszewski wrote.

"The AP stands by its story."

This is a pretty powerful rebuke to the 82nd Chairborne, who still think they can intimidate people into believing that everything is going swell in Iraq. The notion that they draw the line at incineration when there are dozens of tales of violence coming out of the country every day is ridiculous. I hope reporters continue to diligently check their sources, and are prepared to fight back when the Mongol hordes decide that they're defaming Dear Leader and must call the story into question. Here's David Neiwert:

It would be one thing, of course, if all the Keyboard Kommandos had done was try to verify AP's sources. But they didn't -- they, with Malkin and Powerline leading the charge, flatly accused the AP of fraudulent reporting and condemned them as having no credibility. Powerline accused them of "shamelessly" stoking "hysteria" about Iraq and said the report indicated "an abandonment of all journalistic standards" (as though they had any understanding themselves of such matters). Malkin informed journalists that they were "writing their own" obituary. Nice.

"Frankly ludicrous" was the nice description for this kind of atrocity. "Flagrantly delusional" would be more to the point.

You can combine this with Dennis Prager claiming that the new Muslim-American member of Congress must accept his oath of office on a Bible instead of a Koran, when in fact incoming Congressmen don't have to swear on any kind of religious book, nor can any religious test be required of them, and you get the picture. These are insane people. They have no sense of American politics or law, nor do they care. They simply want to remain in power, and they'll do so by lying about everyone else's motives but their own. Their little imperial adventure is a disaster; they're tarnished beyond belief; but they'll still slander anyone who gets in their way. Which is why they, not the AP, have lost all credibility.