Friday, August 15, 2008

FOX misidentifies Ossetian irregulars as "Georgian forces"

According to FOX reporters, they were fired on by "undisciplined" "Georgian forces" at a Russian-manned Gori checkpoint on the highway from Tbilisi.

Let's review what's remarkable about this:

1) British, Czech, Norwegian, Turkish, Canadian, Danish, and even Russian journalists have all been either killed, shot at, carjacked, or robbed by Ossetian "irregulars". FOX has the unique status of being the only news organization to report a hostile encounter with Georgians.

2) The reporters' description of events, "one minute, you're sitting down with Russian forces, the next minute, carloads of Georgian forces drive up" and start firing, bears an uncanny resemblance to this Associated Press description of events at Gori from the day before:
Near a gasoline station up the road, Georgian officers with binoculars watched as dozens of journalists gathered near the Russians tanks, taping and photographing them up close and attempting to talk to the soldiers. ...
But the situation turned ugly. South Ossetian militiamen, who are allied with the more disciplined Russian troops, appeared and began shouting at people to leave the area. They were highly aggressive, pointing weapons and shoving civilians. One older fighter with a beard fired a pistol in the air.

Note the matching narrative, right down to the "pistol".

3) The AP story also discusses what happened earlier:
In the morning, columns of Georgian police and military vehicles prepared to reoccupy the strategic town of Gori after the expected departure of Russian forces. ...
Reports of a collapse in negotiations on a handover of the town triggered a confrontation between Georgian and Russian troops at a checkpoint on the main road, a little over a mile from the center of Gori. No shots were fired, but Russian tanks quickly roared up in a display of might that forced the Georgians to pull back.
The story also refers to when "panicked Georgian troops fled for safety in pickup trucks". Apparently, FOX would have us believe that Georgian troops not only overcame any panic they might have had, but showed up at the checkpoint to start firing at journos talking with Russian soldiers? When there is a ceasefire in place? In the only report of any Georgian firing that day? A "large contingent of the world's media" is there and only FOX reports on this remarkable development?

4) Our intrepid FOX reporter states multiple times that these "Georgian forces" were "irregular". This is the first reported sighting of a "Georgian irregular" in the 21st century!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Fox journalist says in the video that he was sitting with Russian forces before the attack came. It would be unusual for Ossetian irregulars to attack Russians.

Brian Dell said...

If the Russians were being shot at, why didn't they shoot back? Or run? Are they just going to stand there and die? And why did the journos run a full mile before stopping if it was the Russians who were the target?