The media pundit's pundit. Written by NYC insider Jeff Jarvis, BuzzMachine covers news, media, journalism, and politics.
Aljazeera war crime deniers
: The ever noxious Al Jazeera really pushes the edge this time, running a story by one “Lawrence Smallman” saying that “blogger” — unnamed — doubt the authenticity of the Nick Berg execution video. Sick f’s:
Revolting millions around the world, the video footage of an American citizen’s execution has also raised numerous questions concerning its authenticity.
Even at first glance, internet bloggers were asking on Thursday why Nick Berg was wearing an orange jumpsuit
These guys make The National Enquirer look like The Wall Street Journal.
Here’s a reasonable explanation – that jumpsuit could have been stolen. Heck, way back when the soldiers were getting shot at every day as they raced to Baghdad, I remember hearing reports about stolen US military clothes that would be distributed to the Fedayeen to wear and commit atrocities which would then be blamed on the US military.
Or maybe someone placed an order with a company that produces these jumpsuits and smuggled these into Iraq. The folks at al Jazeera should be putting on their thinking caps and keeping it on longer than they currently are.
NIGHTLINE, May 14, 2004
Koppel: “Tonight on Nightline, ‘On the Media,’ a special half hour focusing on the media reactions to the death of Nicholas Berg, especially reactions by Middle Eastern News Organizations. Now, to Chris Burey in Qatar.”
Burey: “Thank you, Ted. Al Jazeera, if you haven’t heard of it, is the Middle East’s answer to CNN. Tonight, this network, seen by millions of viewers around the world, is questioning the veracity of the videotape of the alleged beheading death of Nicholas Berg. We won’t show you the videotape, but here is what skeptics are saying, as read by Al Jazeera anchors from internet sources.”
Skeptic 1: (From indymedia.org) “Where’s the blood? The head they are holding up is a fake.”
Skeptic 2: (From campaign Email sent out by the Kerry campaign) “Though there is no evidence that Mr. Bremer personally handed over Mr. Berg to Al Qaeda, we are against the poor mileage that Mr. Bremer gets in that huge SUV used to ferry Mr. Berg over to Al Qaeda headquarters.”
Skeptic 3: (From comments of the Daily Kos) “Screw Nicholas Berg.”
Burey: “And that’s what they’re saying in the Middle East. There are some voices on conservative talk radio in the US that are using this video to call for revenge. CONSERVATIVE TALK RADIO, Back to you, Ted.”
Koppel: “And when we come back, we’ll be joined by ABC News Analyst Richard Clarke and the father of the deceased, Michael Berg for more on our Nightline special: On the Media. ”
Commercial: Farenheit 9/11: The movie that big bad Disney corporation did not want you to see, er, because they were pressured by Jeb Bush’s threats of nuking Orlando. Not because Diseny corporation is shilling a movie or anything. We like Disney here at ABC.
Koppel: “We’re back with Richard Clarke and Michael Berg. With great sadness and deference, I do have to add that the headless body of Nicholas Berg was found in Iraq, and has been flown back to the US. Michael, how do you react to the to the media reports that the gruesome video, which we will not show here out of respect for the dead, was in fact a fake?”
Michael Berg:(sitting in front of a sign on his front lawn that reads “War is Not The Answer”)
Unfortunately we have our own sickos in this country as well. These DJ’s were fired Thursday afternoon, after airing the audio recording of Berg’s murder repeatedly on Wednesday and laughing at the incident. http://www.katu.com/news/story.asp?ID=67314
How about some proof, some facts?
U.S. officials say they didn’t have Berg, Iraqi police did. Iraqi police say they never heard of him. Where was he, and who held him? And what happened to him when he was released?
Al Jazeera couldn’t find the video on the islamic website named as its source — Al Jazeera, that gets every bleat from Usama bin Laden?
Think, people. Don’t uncritically swallow everything because you want to believe it. There is something very fishy about this story.
Want to be the media? Investigate this.
And yes, if you behead somebody lots of blood should spurt.
Gawd, you’re such a hypocrite, Jarvis. Every day you orgasm whenever a mainstream media source mentions bloggers yet in this instance when one does you don’t like it because they aren’t reporting the blogger stories you want to hear. The discussion Al Jazeera mentions is taking place on blogs and the fact that you and Instarube don’t know about it only goes to prove that you live in an echo chamber. Check out Hesiod’s blog, rube and you’ll see one of those un-named bloggers discussing some of the points the Al Jazeera article mentions.
Hey, so Al-Jazeera is speculating. That’s nothing. The moonbats at Democratic Underground are flat out accusing the CIA of doing the deed.
That’s matched BTD Greg, by the wack jobs at freerepublic accusing the left of plotting this whole thing.
McClelland-
What eloquence you possess!
Keep up the good work. There’s no limit to what you can achieve with displays of class such as this.
I’m still amazed the lengths the far left will go to try and pin every event on Bush. Everything’s a conspiracy theory. And if we don’t question everything we are just stupid lackeys accepting what is spoonfed to us. CIA did this, where’s the blood (fiddlesticks, are you speaking from experience of cutting off heads? Did you even see the video?), the guys in the masks are white, the guys in the masks have white maneurisms, and the the list goes on. Give us a break. Grow up and accept the reality that there are sick, twisted, and evil people in this world and Republicans aren’t them.
And since when did Al Jazeera become credible or mainstream?
Extremists on both sides are idiotic from time to time.
Have a link on the alleged Freeper claims?
“U.S. officials say they didn’t have Berg, Iraqi police did.”
US officials did indeed say they had Berg.
So far I have not seen any challenges to the official story that have held up.
Did people go this wacko when Daniel Pearl was killed?
I’m a bit surprised that the authenticity of the video is being taken as a given. It certainly looks suspicious for a variety of reasons. Here are a few:
http://www.polizeros.com/2004/05/13.html#a3849
I don’t think there’s a conspiracy necessarily but some more rigorous analysis of the video itself and its originations would seem to be in order.
I saw some of these comments and decided to post a few links. I think people should know where this info comes from.
This site is probably one of the sites Aljazeera says is a source. Keep in mind it’s all propaganda. http://www.albasrah.net/maqalat/articles_E.htm
These two links deal with fiddlesticks specific observations.
http://www.aztlan.net/fake_video.htm
Nick Berg decapitation video declared “a fraud” by medical doctor
http://www.albasrah.net/images/berg/berg.htm
The killers used the same plastic chair as the US soldiers in Iraq
This site watches arab chat boards, blogs and media sites. They report on what they are hearing. http://www.homelandsecurityus.com/ They have an arab to english translation of the Berg video. Scroll down to get the translation.
Care to attempt some substantive refutation of Al Jazeera’s report? Calling them names by itself doesn’t convince me that you’re right and they’re wrong. At the minimum, there are a lot of questions raised by the tape.
“That’s matched BTD Greg, by the wack jobs at freerepublic accusing the left of plotting this whole thing.”
Very true…first instinct of FR when the prison abuse photos came out was to doubt authenticity, then moved on to other “theories”. Why? Because the realization of the photos likely impact.
DU’s first reaction to the video was much the same. Immediately call it a fake then figure out how the CIA did it. Why? Because the realization of the video’s likely impact.
FR/DU different sides of the same fucked up coin.
“http://www.polizeros.com/2004/05/13.html#a3849”
Interestingly enough a DUer posted a video analysis refutation that the video itself is fake.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104×1596064
Oh and that white chair….it’s not exactly as if they were unique.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/iraq/dailyimages/052503chair.jpg
So common white chair, a robe that looks like prison uniform, the fact that they had pale skin and were portly therefore they are Americans…so far all debunked.
Now it relies on “feeling” that its a fake. Kind of like the feeling that FR “knows” Clinton killed Foster and Brown.
Ryan:
After having seen FR for the first time today, I have to agree. But the difference in this case remains that the major media outlets have plastered us with saturation coverage of Abu Ghraib including graphic photos for two weeks now, while the Nick Berg story is already “page 2” news and was never carried with graphic photos. Seems to me like DU has more fertile ground prepared for them.
I know people who believe the NASA moon landing missions never took place and are frauds.
I believe astronauts walked on the moon.
Would I bet my life on it though? Um, I’m not so sure about *that*. heh. After all, I’m not an aerospace engineer or an expert in the field.
I have not watched the beheading video. But when I heard it described in a radio report, I couldn’t help but imagining Nick Berg being restrained as he thrashed as they begun, and blood being everywhere.
Probably because I have vivid memories of seeing the footage of the Bud Dwyer suicide.
But I did not attend medical school, and I have no practical experience or knowledge in the realm of violent deaths and how much blood should be present. Perhaps he was drugged and wouldn’t have been able to thrash or even wriggle.
But it’s not ‘evil’ to have doubts about what took place in that video.
It’s called critical thinking.
Believing without a doubt that it’s real, or believing without a doubt it’s a fraud, is the illogical perspective.
Buzz Aldrin is reported to have punched a guy for suggesting he didn’t walk on the moon.
That’s a little bit of an off-kilter response.
Like the Verizon customer who went hog wild violent in the cell phone store.
I’m going to remain sane and not berate & insult someone for asking questions about the authenticity of a video, the source of which has not yet been proven unquestionably.
There are questions around Nick Berg’s demise, but they concern some of the mysterious circumstances casting doubt on the ostensible reason he was i n Iraq. His headless body has been identiied, so fakery doesn’t seem to be an issue.
Al-Jazeera and Western analysts have noted that the lack of blood, taken with a long time lapse on the running clock on the tape between the bit where he was alive and the bit where he was “killed” suggest the beheading was post-mortem. That would explain the lack of blood. It may well be that he was killed by some less dramatic and bloody means earlier.
I speculated elsewhere today that it might be possible Berg was selected as a perhaps unwitting martyr after having gone to Iraq in support of the “resistance”. See links at Reynolds’s site.
Of course, I have no proof of this at all, and am not really inclined to believe it on balance.
