The Vaunted Checks And Balances On Full Display

The Washington Post article I linked earlier pedantically pontificated upon the vaunted journalistic checks and balances that the media holds itself to. No, really. Stop laughing like that, you'll hurt yourself. They were apparently quite serious. (To be fair about this, the WaPo is somewhat better than other media outlets – cough NYT – which is one reason I read them regularly). But the AFP shows the application of those journalistic standards in all their glory today!

MOGADISHU (AFP) – Clan elders and residents in southern Somalia have said that about 100 civilians were killed this week in US and Ethiopian air strikes on suspected Al-Qaeda targets in the region.

There was no way to independently confirm the toll, and it was unclear if it referred to the same areas hit by at least one US air raid on Monday, and by other attacks believed to have been launched by Ethiopian helicopters.

Sheikh Abdullahi Ali Malabon, an elder in the Afmadow area, said Thursday 100 bodies had been counted.

"We have sent a team to assess the casualties there and they have confirmed more than 100 people killed," he told AFP by phone from the remote area. "Many others were wounded but we don't have an exact number."

Closer to the Kenyan border, between the villages of Afmadow and Dhobley, residents and elders also spoke of at least 100 civilian deaths but stressed they had only yet accounted for 29 bodies, some burned beyond recognition.

It would be instructive to know how many weapons were pried from the "civilian's" hands, of course. This is not to say the AFP is intentionally lying, but that printing what is essentially a rumor with absolutely no other evidence is obeying which lofty journalistic standard? Even though they cite a source here, we have no way of knowing who the source is affiliated with – adding a name in this instance does not add credibility to the source. Unidentified "residents and elders" insist the numbers are 100 and AFP reports it, then in the body of the report stress that only 29 actual, you know, bodies have actually been counted. They discredit their own story if you bother to read that far. But that 100, is just such a nice round headline-grabbing number, isn't it? And they all just happen to be civilians. In the area where the islamists happen to be making a last stand. 

The only thing missing here are the newlyweds or the wedding party that seem to be mandatory in AP reporting. They always report on those groom seeking missiles.