Topic: NewsBusters
Dan Riehl has been on a misinformation tear of late at NewsBusters.
In a Jan. 31 post, he 1) attacked the New York Times for reporting on a Marine's death in Iraq before the family was notified, but without noting that the Times claims that it expected the military to notify the family before the story ran and that the Times itself tried to contact the family to alert it of the story; 2) accused CBS "journalist/activist" Lara Logan of incorporating "a gruesome al-Qaeda video ... into a news report without attribution" without noting CBS' denial of the claim; and 3) falsely suggested that a "disgusting anti-military screed" by a Washington Post blogger is representative of the entire Washington Post. (Certainly the MRC folks would never say that Riehl's history of misinformation is representative of that of all NewsBusters writers, would they?)
In a Feb. 1 post, Riehl touted a nomination of Rush Limbaugh for the Nobel Peace Prize as though it was legitimate; it's not.
In a Feb. 3 post, Riehl misleadingly asserts that a Slate article called claims that Vietnam soldiers were spit on "false." In fact, the article specifically states that "nobody can prove something never happened," acknowledges the existence of anecdotal accounts of such spitting , and notes the lack of any sort of "evidence -- such as a contemporaneous newspaper story or an arrest report -- that documents the sordid event."
Despite his history of false and misleading claims, Riehl is still allowed to post at NewsBusters. Perhaps the Sheffields should explain to NewsBusters readers why that is.
