Please read my last post. The “they” in that sentence is referring to Fox news.
I went to the AP’s website and did a search for the Cuba article but found none even relating to it over the last 7 days. Is that typical of the AP not to list all of their articles?
Oh, man! You totally missed the first rule of the Pit.
Bush is the anti-Christ and you must never question that fact. 
Oh. Never-the-fuck-mind. I didn’t notice that the article in the OP was dated:
Heh, that’ll teach me for taking the “now” for granted that the title of the thread implied.
For my money, something that intelligent members of both sides can respect as honest and full details (inasmuch as is possible, of course). For some people, nothing Fox News publishes can ever be believed, and the same goes for any other news establishment. I still would want something from multiple sources with more than just the same 200 words on the matter, or something. However, that’s just me not wanting to be fooled twice on the same matter. When it comes to something as important as WMDs, I want multiple sources if for no other reason than I can point to them and say “Look. It ain’t just me.”
My problem, IOW, duffer, is that so far I find nothing on CNN, one article (from two years ago) has been found on ABC, nothing on the BBC, Google turns up lots of sources I’ve never heard of (I welcome anyone who wants to tell me or anyone else why they’re reliable), etc. We thought we had all the evidence anyone could ever want on Iraq WMDs and that turned out, as I said, oh so well. The amount found WRT Iraq WMDs, compared to what’s turning up online (I don’t have the strongest desire to walk to the library in the rain right now. If it’s that important I’ll have a look at Infotrack or something. Maybe someone can look through LexisNexus) on Cuba’s WMDs is, shall we say, lackluster at best. IMHO, anyway. If someone else can turn up something that’s reliable and respectable, I’m all ears.
I’m also not saying it’s a false story, but thanks for attempting to construct an argument for me:) What I said was this:
If an honest and fair reading of that part of my post produced in you the belief that I was claiming the story was false, I suggest you re-read it. I don’t see anywhere that I even implied it was false. Might it be mistaken? I think so. The recent pitting of the AP article claiming that the crowd at a Bush gathering booed when they heard news about Clinton shows that not everything the AP puts out is from the mouth of God, after all.
You also conveniently neglected to include in your thought process this:
IOW, I’m unconvinced and willing to be shown the error of my ways:)
Riiiiiight. Because, you know, “these leftist loons” have the bully pulpit and influence of the President. Gotta watch out for those message board posters, they can do so much more damage than the President.
Um, nobody has noted the real reason behind this cry of “wolf.”
Florida is expected to be as crucial this election as it was last election. And the administration’s harsh policies on Cuban refugees–they’ve even repatriated refugees whom they new would be jailed for fleeing; they just extracted a promis that they wouldn’t be executed–that there’s some suggestion they’ve lost a lot of the Cuban-American base in that state. Cuban Americans, in general, want the US to take a harder line on Cuba: they want Castro OUT, so they can rejoin their families, etc. Being aggressive toward refugees, which equals being soft on Cuba, has alienated a lot of Florida voters.
This latest is just a blatant, and cynical, and no doubt hollow, campaign promise to Cuban Floridians.
From here:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040907.wxrymcuba07/BNStory/Business/
Looks like that WMD research is finally paying off.
[QUOTE=iampunha]
My problem, IOW, duffer, is that so far I find nothing on CNN, one article (from two years ago) has been found on ABC, nothing on the BBC,
[QUOTE]
So the best you could find was a 2 year old article? I’m not getting into a pissing contest with you, but based on posting history I can safely assume you hate Fox News? Or did they report this last night? (I have no cable thanks to Incontinent Communications) see Pit if you want the full story
Either way, it’s an AP story and Fox News is getting hammered for it. The shrill vitriol towards a single network is rather telling. Not necessarily from you iam , but you know damn well you’ve gotten on that bandwagon.
When the left-wing radicals pounce on the AP for this, I’ll listen. But dragging out the tired-ass “Fox News Is Evil” rant is, quite frankly, a bore.
Why are you ranting about this? It has long been suspected that Cuba has WMD. Don’cha remember that they did have quite a few a number of decades back.
Why would it be any shock that they had some, or were developing some now?
[QUOTE=duffer]
[QUOTE=iampunha]
My problem, IOW, duffer, is that so far I find nothing on CNN, one article (from two years ago) has been found on ABC, nothing on the BBC,
Duffer, don’t be so ignorant. The AP publishes, what, hundreds of stories every day. Each news “retailer,” like Fox, chooses which of those stories they will run, and which are too stupid or unimportant to run. If Fox chooses to trumpet this story, then they are indeed the ones to be criticized.
Another one of the unintended consequences of the embargo against Cuba. They would never have developed their biotechology capability to this extent if they could buy American pharmaceuticals on the open market.
I haven’t been able to find shit, other than netforcuba.org, counterpunch.org, and similarly world-respected sources.
Read and responded to it. I try, though I fail more often than I’d like, not to accept one single source for something important like this. One person, organization, whatever, can be wrong. I would no more accept the individual ABC article than I accept the Fox News article as being Ultimate Truth. Multiple sources tends (though it does not always succeed in doing so) to eliminate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak.
Oh, thanks so much for the guilt by association. “You’ve done this before, so let me indirectly rag on you.” Let’s never mind any bias you might have;)
What’s a bore as well, to me, is folks creating arguments on others’ behalves (unless you meant to specifically direct this portion of your post to someone else), then complaining about them. I’ll certainly blast Fox for doing stupid things, as I’d blast other people as well (unless someone else has already covered that - too many “me too” posts spoil the broth). I don’t think I’ve blasted them here For Being Fox, or even at all, unless you consider “I’d like to see another article on this from someone else” to be unnecessarily negative, in which case I’ll return your “your friends do this too” serve and return with milroyj’s recent pit thread, in which he didn’t even manage to pit the person who brought the issue up (that’d be Guin). Just as applicable, no?
Lissener, you may be making the same mistake I was by thinking that the link in the OP was actually current. It’s not. It’s from May 6th, 2002. Which is the same day that CNN ran the story as well. I really have to agree that this is some unfair Fox-bashing (dagnabbit).
I hate when I submit too soon. Google May 6 2002 Cuba Biological Weapons and you’ll see that it wasn’t just reported by Foxnews.:
XBS NewsMax
Even the Democratic Senator Bob Graham from Florida
and a lot more…
CBS that is… :smack:
John Bolton on March 30, 2004:
Upon reflection, duffer, I think we misunderstand each other. The Fox News article wasn’t found by me. It was found, and posted, by World Eater. What ire you have directed at me is misplaced, I think, though I wouldn’t direct it at WE either. Simply-put, 'twasn’t my pitting. I’m curious as to how he found it … one doesn’t go looking for articles about Cuban WMDs every day, now:)
I do wonder, though, why this wasn’t emphasized in the news at the time. I have my own conjecture, of course: Iraqi conflict was heavily underway, and news that Cuba might have WMD would have unpleasantly surprised many Americans and caused them to think, rightly or wrongly, that Bush was losing control. There’s also the cynical response that Cuba doesn’t have a precious natural resource, unlike Iraq, but that’s probably a bit much tinfoil hattery.
A few things in Sen. Graham’s words caught my eye:
“‘For four decades Cuba has maintained a well-developed and sophisticated biomedical industry, supported until 1990 by the Soviet Union.” Who was supporting it from 1990 on?
“Analysts and Cuban defectors have long cast suspicion on the activities conducted in these biomedical facilities.” Suspicion doesn’t equal proof.
I wonder why we didn’t go after Syria, Libya or Cuba if they represented such a threat to us, as estimated by Bolton.
The AP is a wire service with a huge staff of diverse peoploids. Yes, the AP is generally reliable. Yes, they occasionally run incorrect or intentionally silly stories. Whether or not subscribers actually print them reflects the editorial judgement of the subscribing organization.
Of course, my original remark was based on the assumption that the story was current and that FoxNews was the only outlet that gave it time. This was determined by searching for phrases in the article using Google’s news aggregate service. Turns out that this was misleading for two reasons: One, it’s not a current article, and two, and (most importantly) it turns out that it’s not an AP article after all. You’ll note the FoxNews credit: “The Associated Press contributed to this report.” ) The AP story that is source for the article reads somewhat differently:
Some other interesting rewrites:
Interesting how FOXNews spins it. I can forgive most of the subtle jiggery-pokery, but introducing something that is patently false (ie; a convicted spy is the sole author of The Cuban Threat to U.S. National Security) into an article, and still running it under the AP byline? That’s, uh, actionable, isn’t it?
Isn’t that why they include that “This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed” at the bottom?
meh…I’m sure the story will be forgoten in a day or two until someone puts it in their “Big List of Censored News Stories that Never Went Anywhere Because Nothing Happened of 2004” list.
I don’t think some people yet realize that this is a two year old story.
So, for the benefit of those people: It’s a two year old story. The story was reported by other sources, as stpauler has shown.