Bloggasm

It has been two weeks since the US military announced it would release AP photographer Bilal Hussein, who was held by the military for two years without charges. The military had launched vague terrorism accusations at the journalist but provided no evidence for this — instead it released anonymous leaks to various right-wing partisan bloggers (led by Michelle Malkin). Unfortunately, these bloggers went to every extreme in amplifying these accusations with multiple posts saying the AP was associated with terrorists.

But after Hussein was ordered released (by an Iraqi judicial panel, with the US military saying, “he no longer presents an imperative threat to security”), many of those bloggers who had spent thousands of words smearing both him and the AP barely issued a peep. Those who gave brief statement refused to apologize and said that because Bilal was ordered released under an “amnesty law” (a law none of them read so could know nothing about its content) then it wasn’t proof of his innocence. But other than those few brief posts, only cricket chirping.

Eric Boehlert has a great article at Media Matters that gives a comprehensive background of the bloggers’ shameful reporting and their silence in the aftermath of his release. After reading it I couldn’t help but be depressed at the thought that these bloggers still have thousands of readers that are subjected to their writing. For some, there is no justice.