Marines Finding Surrendering Fighters (misleading headline)

[Barrett808]

Marines Finding Surrendering Fighters
EDWARD HARRIS
Associated Press

FALLUJAH, Iraq - U.S. Marines charged up the stairs in one of Fallujah's grandest buildings Saturday, seeking the high ground in their battle with insurgents. There, they found three foreign men lying in wait.

But they were unarmed, elderly and infirm - three shaken and hungry Egyptians, kneeling on the floor, waving a white sheet.

One wore a turban, had sallow skin and a distended belly. He held out a note in English - a message from Marines who had swept through earlier. It said the foreigners were not suspected combatants, unlike many in Fallujah.

"Tell them we'll get them out for medical treatment. Not now, but soon they'll have a ride to the rear," Lt. Owen Boyce, 24, of Simsbury, Conn., told a translator. "Tell them we'll take care of them. But we've got a casualty and that's the priority."

The three Egyptians were traveling to Baghdad for medical care when the were caught up in the Fallujah fighting.

...

"It's pretty clear these guys aren't fighters," Boyce said as the Egyptians pressed cheap plastic lighters, gifts of gratitude, into his hands.

(more)

http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/news/state/10174758.htm

[pinerow]

1. Misleading???...how about total fabrication.

nt

[Sin]

9. Yea

Full metal Jacket
So wheres the kill a blood trail lets say they killed and officer
How about we make it a general, maybe I should go watch that again.

[uppityperson]

2. Fighting to stay alive is all

I am glad they were not just shot. I hate all this and am glad to know that there are so many other people here who do also. thank you

[otohara]

3. "It's Pretty Clear These Guys Aren't Fighters"

what part of that says Marines Finding Surrendering Fighters???

Looks like the editor at GrandForks didn't read past the first sentence

[Fridays Child]

4. Is being captured when you're cornered the same thing as surrendering?

[Rumba]

5. Read further down

Presumably the headline refers to the reports in the latter part of the article.

"Each day, Marines smashing their way through a city that was once home to 300,000 people are finding men of military age hiding in Fallujah's low houses and few apartment buildings, near loaded weapons.

:

As many as 90 percent of people found in Fallujah since the fighting began are believed to be insurgents and are treated as prisoners - sent to the rear for questioning. Friday night, for example, Marines led about 40 detainees out of a command post, pushing the barefoot men who winced as they walked across the rubble."


<trivia>
Nitpicker that I am, I noticed this line:

"Marines in one northern neighborhood said they also liberated two hostages, a Syrian and two Iraqis."

2 + 1 == 2? What crappy editing.
</trivia>

[MisterP]

6. the closest thing to a definition of "fighter" is:

"men of military age hiding in Fallujah's low houses and few apartment buildings, near loaded weapons," which means anyone 15 to 50 LIVING IN FALLUJA!

[uppityperson]

7. same story, different headline=different tone

http://www.boston.com/dailynews/318/world/Marines_finding_surrendering_f:.shtml

Marines finding surrendering fighters, hostages, stranded civilians in Iraq's Fallujah

[signmike]

8. A couple nights ago

on regular TV, there was an interview with a happy marine who was saying "We have them right where we want them - they're coming to us with their white flags and we're killing them."
I don't believe they're asking questions and letting people go. I don't think they're taking many prisoners.

[daleo]

10. Wouldn't that be a war crime?

Or, if they claim is that this isn't really a war, wouldn't it be an old fashioned regular crime?

This will be sure to alienate even more Iraqis.

[livinbella]

16. this will be sure to alienate US!

[maddezmom]

11. where did you see this??

[signmike]

13. Probably Channel 9

I'm in L.A.
I try not to watch Fox on Ch. 11, but it's all the same anyway. I think Wednesday night, it was the day they attacked the big mosque and they were showing a bunch of people (insurgents, of course) walking carrying white flags, then the camera moved to this guy.

[uppityperson]

12. wrote the paper, here's the response

It's a small thing, but that's what I do, hoping small things add up. I wrote them @ [e-mail]:

I am writing regarding your article Sat, Nov 13, "Marines Finding
Surrendering Fighters". This headline is very misleading as the point
of the article is that there are non-fighters, civilians being found
in Fallujah. I found another, similar headline in another paper about
the same AP article "Marines finding suurendering fighters, hostages,
standed civilians in Iraq's Fallujah". Your heading this article so
ignores all these other people and perpetuates the myth of "all Iraq
citizens are fighters", or, as it used to be said, the only good
indian was a dead indian.

Their response:

Thanks for the critique. I'll pass it on to the page designers and
headline writers.
Jaime DeLage, city editor

[Barrett808]

14. Good job, that's pretty cool. n/t

[Darranar]

15. This headline isn't misleading. It's an outirght LIE!

How did the media get this bad?