US combat operation in Iraq not over, clarifies AP
At some point in the last two weeks, you may have been told by someone in the news that combat operations in Iraq were over, and that the last combat troop had left the country. Well, the Associated Press is not having any of it, and in a memo from their standards editor, Tom Kent, the law in this regard has been laid down, in no uncertain terms: “To begin with, combat in Iraq is not over, and we should not uncritically repeat suggestions that it is, even if they come from senior officials.”
If you recall, on August 18, 2010, NBC broadcast their world news exclusive report that the War in Iraq was over, and that the “last U.S. combat troops have pulled out of Iraq.” The story got wall-to-wall coverage on MSNBC, Rachel Maddow reported from the Green Zone, and correspondent Richard Engel got to take a ride on a tank. And all of this exclusive coverage was possible because the Pentagon giftwrapped the story for them. Here’s Brian Stelter of the New York Times:
Asked how the NBC broadcast constituted “an official Pentagon announcement,” Steve Capus, the president of NBC News, said the broadcast was such a declaration because “the announcement that the last Stryker brigade was leaving Iraq had not been made” by the military.
David Verdi, an NBC News vice president, added, “The military had said, ‘You are the ones who are going to broadcast it first.’”
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