As reported by all the international media outlets, Pakistan’s government has come to a “peace treaty” of sorts with the militants that are based in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) to end years of unrest. The North Waziristan accord calls on the tribesmen to expel foreign militants and end cross-border attacks in return for a reduced military presence. This story has been posted on the following international media venues: BBCnews.com, Washington Post, MSNBC, and biased FOXNews. Domestically, the story was credited to GEO TV, but was also carried by Jang and DAWN, which are Pakistan’s largest media outlets. All of the above media sources have reported the same story throughout their news publications.
But ABCNews.com made a huge error in reporting that “If he is in Pakistan, bin Laden ‘would not be taken into custody,’ Major General Shaukat Sultan Khan told ABC News in a telephone interview, ‘as long as one is being like a peaceful citizen.’”
What makes this a major error is that all of the other media source have no comment from Major General Shaukat Sultan, who is Director General – ISPR. Whereas, the above sources have quoted Zaman Khan Shah, Director General - Media Civil Secretariat (FATA) , but not with any statement that comes close to matching what ABC News has on its website. Zaman Khan is only quoted with providing the details of a military force reduction in the area in return for an end to fighting inside Pakistan and cross-border fighting in Afghanistan. This error in reporting comes on the heals of an embarrassing incident involving ABC News distributing copies of the “Path to 9/11” script to its preferred bloggers to generate a false buzz around the television series, which included numerous incorrect statements about the events that lead up to the September 11th tragedy.
Additionally, Major General Shaukat Sultan, Pakistan’s top army spokesman on Wednesday vehemently denied a news report quoting him as saying Osama bin Laden would not be taken into custody if he agrees to live peacefully in the country.
“This is absolutely fabricated, absurd. I never said this,” Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan told The Associated Press, referring to an ABC News report aired hours earlier.This is the second reporting error by the international media in regards to events in Pakistan. Last week, Nic Robertson, a CNN Correspondent, incorrectly reported that due to the violence in Baluchistan surrounding Akbar Bugti’s death, President Musharraf had ordered certain news channels to suspend transmission, which was not repeated in any of the related news stories on its website. Nor, is it true. Since we have the local news channels on all day in our offices, we can confirm that no channel suspended transmission during the Akbar Bugti violence spree, instead they all covered the violence and the government response with fervor, even through to today.
I guess if you are going to blow a news story, you might as well blow it really badly.
UPDATE:
Since the posting and the denial by Major General Shaukat Sultan, ABCnews has updated their website with his recorded comments:
Q. ABC News: If bin Laden or Zawahiri were there, they could stay?
A. Gen. Sultan: No one of that kind can stay. If someone is there he will have to surrender, he will have to live like a good citizen, his whereabouts, exit travel would be known to the authorities.
Q. ABC News: So, he wouldn’t be taken into custody? He would stay there?
A. Gen. Sultan: No, as long as one is staying like a peaceful citizen, one would not be taken into custody. One has to stay like a peaceful citizen and not allowed to participate in any kind of terrorist activity.
General Sultan said today it was “hair splitting” to speculate whether troops would be sent in if bin Laden was found in North Waziristan.
“If someone is found there, we will see what is to be done,” General Sultan said today. “Pakistan is committed to the war on terror, and of course we will go after any terrorist found to be operating here,” he said.
In the process of updating their news, they deleted the 250 comments that had been made in regards to the first story, most of which were calling for Pakistan to be invaded and bombed for supporting terrorism and bin Laden. Fortunately, I have a saved copy of the whole page on my laptop and can reference the comments.
You can read the statement issued by Mahmud Ali Durrani, Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States, here and here.
When you have FIX News to portray the far right ideals and beliefs of the Bush Administration, it would make sense that ABC News would take the time to confirm the whole story and make sure they quote the source correctly. General Sultan categorically said in his comment that “they would have to surrender.”
First, a false documentary on the events of 9/11 and now a grossly misquoted statement about Pakistan’s commitment to the War on Terror. Guess the boys at ABC want to stay on Dubya’s good side, rather than report the news.
Reminds me of the National Enquirer.
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