] A recent Washington Post article describing the killing
] of civilians by U.S. soldiers at a checkpoint outside the
] Iraqi town of Najaf proved that "embedded" journalists do
] have the ability to report on war in all its horror. But
] the rejection by some U.S. outlets of Post correspondent
] William Branigin's eyewitness account in favor of the
] Pentagon's sanitized version suggests that some
] journalists prefer not to report the harsh reality of
] war.
]
] The Pentagon version was the one first reported in U.S.
] media-- sometimes in terms that assumed that the official
] account was factual. "What happened there, the van with a
] number of individuals in it...approached the checkpoint,"
] reported MSNBC's Carl Rochelle (3/31/03). "They were told
] to stop by the members of the 3rd Infantry Division. They
] did not stop, warning shots were fired. Still they came
] on. They fired into the engine of the van. Still it came
] on, so they began opening fire on the van itself."

FAIR MEDIA ADVISORY: Official Story Vs. Eyewitness Account