Media rules

You've no doubt heard about Giuliana Sgrena, the Italian journalist kidnapped by insurgents in Iraq who was freed only to be shot, and the agent who arranged her release killed, by American forces as she was being driven from captivity to Baghdad airport. You also, I expect, have heard that she denies the US version of events, in which the "speeding" car failed to respond to a variety of warnings.

[I]n an interview with Italian La 7 TV, Sgrena said, "There was no bright light, no signal." She also said the car was traveling at "regular speed"

and that when the shooting started, the driver kept shouting that they were Italians.

But what I wanted to note for the record was how the AP article that reported this tried to disparage her and undermine her credibility in its presentation. Bear in mind that they are basically writing for an American audience.

The very first words of the article are "Left-wing journalist Giuliana Sgrena." The very first sentence of the second paragraph says she "writes for a communist newspaper that routinely opposes U.S. policy in Iraq." And the very next reference to her is prefaced by the statement "Without backing up her claim...."

So having set her up as a left-winger who doesn't back up her claims and writes for a "routinely" anti-American communist newspaper, the AP gets around to quoting what she actually said.

Would that such efforts to establish context would be "routinely" applied to members of our own government, media, and corporate flackdom.