Posted on 05/14/2004 9:24:34 PM PDT by wagglebee
The Boston Globe today tried to distance itself from its admitted error in publishing pornographic photos fraudulently depicting the rape of Iraqi women by American GIs by blaming the city councilor who distributed the pictures at a press conference.
In an editorial, the paper admitted for the first time the photos were "bogus" and "appeared" to be taken from a porn site, but in a separate article, the Globe's ombudsman claims she still has failed to discover the source of the photos and still has not confirmed or denied their veracity to readers.
The photographs – uncovered by WorldNetDaily as fodder for Arab propaganda – accompanied an article in the Boston paper about local city councilor Chuck Turner, who distributed the graphic pictures Tuesday at a press conference with activist Sadiki Kambon.
Turner told reporters the photos showed U.S. soldiers raping Iraqi women, asserting, "The American people have a right and responsibility to see the pictures."
As WND reported, the photographs were produced by a group called Extreme Traffic. The site "Sex in War" was built around the Extreme Traffic 'rape' content. Select photos also were carried by another site "Iraq Babes" and the hard rape site, but all images were derived from "Sex in War."
Ombudsman Chris Chinlund contended she still did not know the source of the photographs, but WND has copies of e-mails proving otherwise.
Chinlund wrote: "Various sources last week said the photos displayed by Turner came from a pornography website, and they may well have, although I could not trace it to the source."
The WND e-mails to Chinlund, reporter Donovan Slack and editor Marty Baron gave the address of the "Sex in War" site, from which the photos were taken. Select photos also were carried on "Iraq Babes," which has been shut down following WND's original report. But WND told the Globe all the images were contained on the "Sex in War" site and also gave the URL to the companion marketing site.
In addition, on Wednesday, at the Globe's request, WND walked reporter Slack through part of the "Sex in War" site - for which she paid a 5-day subscription - until she could see two of the scenes shown by the Globe. Slack then was left to find the others.
When Slack realized the images were exact matches with the porn shoots she said, "This is ridiculous!" and quipped, "I'll be working at Penthouse soon!"
Nevertheless, Chinlund had only this to say in today's Globe piece:
"I did find one news website with a note from a woman identified as the porn site operator. She was quoted as saying the images, shot in Hungary, had been removed because they were used for anti-American purposes."
The reference is to WND's story about the shutting down of "Iraq Babes," but she avoided commenting about the parent Hungarian site, "Sex in War," which never has been shut down, and as Chinlund repeatedly was told by WND, is the source of all the images.
Also, the photo mix-up already has been covered thoroughly in pornography industry news media.
In addition, Chinlund did not mention she was given all of WND's investigative pieces on the subject, which provide a complete explanation of the origin of the photos.
Editor Baron refused to speak with WND yesterday, when told WND wanted to question him on why the Globe was refusing to admit it knows the images came from a porn website.
He also refused to answer e-mails indicating WND's surprise over the comments the Globe ombudsman made in a story by Agence France-Presse in which she implied she had no idea where the photos came from and had "failed" to find their source.
Chinlund also did not respond to WND's e-mail and verbal messages, including this one:
"Since the Globe has known for over 24 hours that the photos were taken from the porn site ["Sex in War"], which was, contrary to your statement, never taken down, I'd like to get your comments for publication."
The rival Boston Herald published a story yesterday with the headline, "Globe caught with pants down: Paper duped into running porn photos."
The Herald, which quoted from WorldNetDaily's story, said it covered Turner's news conference, along with a number of news outlets, including the Associated Press, but "did not run a story after determining the photos were highly suspicious."
As the Herald reported, the pictures "showed hard-core sex acts and genitalia. ...In a large shot in the paper's early editions, pornographic details are clearly visible. In later editions, the photograph was reduced, making the images slightly more obscure."
Meanwhile, the Globe reported today six of Boston's 13 city councilors signed a letter condemning Turner for holding the news conference that featured the photos.
The letter, addressed to the press and public, described Turner's actions as "hasty, of dubious intent, highly inflammatory and embarrassing to those of us who support our troops."
In article noted the Globe ran a story about the news conference which said the "photographs contained no evidence indicating that the people in them were U.S. soldiers or that the photos were taken in Iraq."
Today's article concluded: "In an editor's note yesterday, the Globe apologized for publishing a photograph taken at Turner's news conference that showed the pictures."
If a democrat says something, the national press corpse prints it.
That is as accurate as they want to be.
He will just as soon as Al Sharpton apologizes for the Tawana Brawly incident.
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