Blackwater Reporting

The Duke 'rape' reporters now bring you Blackwater 'news'

Remember the sensational fake story about the Duke University lacrosse team members who supposedly raped an "escort service dancer"? As one of Duke's nearby newspapers, the Raleigh News & Observer played a big role in that story, for better and for worse.

Now that same paper - through Joseph Neff, one of the very same reporters on the Duke story - is doing a job on Blackwater. And as with the fictitious rape report, the wire services and big chains like the McClatchy Newspapers are trusting the News & Observer (N&O) and recycling its stories. (The News & Observer is a McClatchy subsidiary).

US News & World Report suspected the Duke rape story was untrue and called reporter Joseph Neff on it in the summer of 2006. Neff got defensive. "It would be irresponsible for us not to report what the local district attorney is telling the community," he said. "That's our job." US News didn't buy it, calling the coverage "Duke's Trial by Media."

Contact Joseph Neff and his editors

Joseph Neff of the Raleigh News & Observer openly solicits readers' views. Please oblige him by posting comments on his blog, or contacting the newspaper directly. Just be sure to be polite, not use abusive language and so forth. Show a little class and gentility.

Letters to the Editor. To write a letter to the editor of the Raleigh News & Observer, click here. Pay close attention to the rules: concise writing at 200 words or less, with all your contact information so the editors can verify that you are who you say you are.
Write to News & Observer editors by fax: (919) 829-4872.
Write to News & Observer editors by mail: The People's Forum, PO Box 191, Raleigh, NC 27602.
Call the News & Observer editors by phone: (919) 829-4517.
Contact Executive Editor Melanie Sill. Telephone: (919) 829-8986. Email: msill@newsobserver.com.
Contact Joseph Neff. Telephone: (919) 829-4516. Email: joseph.neff@newsobserver.com. Include your name and hometown.

Ready for Waxman: Neff starts Blackwater blog

Just in time for the October 2, 2007 Waxman hearing before which Blackwater CEO Erik Prince will testify, Joseph Neff launched a new Blackwater blog on the Raleigh News & Observer website. (The N&O is owned by McClatchy Newspapers.)

Blackwater fans are encouraged to post comments on Neff's blog. Here's the link: http://blogs.newsobserver.com/blackwater

Neff makes little attempt to be fair and objective. In announcing his new blog, he writes that Prince has a lot to tell Congress, then rattles off a litany of issues that reflect poorly on Prince and his company. Not that Neff, whom US News & World Report took to task for his reporting on the fake Duke University lacrosse rape case, would find anything positive in a business whose guards take gunfire almost daily form insurgents and which lost 30 of its own people protecting American diplomats, congressmen and convoys.

Neff inaccurately portrays Prince's willingness to appear before Waxman's committee. Implying that the Blackwater founder is somehow recalcritant or unwilling to appear, Neff claims that Prince "is not knocking down the door to testify."

Rep. Henry Waxman's office indicates that Prince will be testifying freely on October 2, adding that Waxman only requested the testimony - and didn't require it or make any threats to subpoena.  Click here to contact Neff and his editors.

AP omits, then adds, major fact in gun story

How did federal authorities learn about the two Blackwater employees who ultimately pled guilty to stealing guns in Iraq?

Readers wouldn't know from most of the press coverage. AP's September 21st article about a Joseph Neff Raleigh News & Observer/McClatchy story omits a major detail: Blackwater USA discovered the crime, fired the employees, and alerted federal authorities who made the arrests.

The next day, on September 22, the AP's David Scott reported a very different version: "Blackwater said Saturday the company immediately fired the men after learning they were stealing from the company and invited the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to investigate. The company pointed to news coverage from 2005, in which a spokesman for the ATF's Charlotte office confirmed the company came forward to authorities and asked for help."

Again we see a bias in the headline-writers. Rather than say that Blackwater alerted ATF in 2005, the Associated Press editors chose inflammatory and guilty-sounding language in the headline: "Blackwater Denies Smuggling Allegations."

AP casts doubt on Neff's word

The Associated Press has picked up on Joseph Neff's Blackwater coverage, and in at least one case cast doubt on its reliability.

On September 22, AP correspondent Matthew Lee ran a piece based on Neff's now-discredited report that federal authorities were investigating Blackwater as a company for arms smuggling. "The News & Observer, citing unidentified sources, reported that the probe was looking at whether Blackwater had shipped unlicensed automatic weapons and military goods to Iraq without a license," the AP reporter wrote, adding his own professional doubts about Neff's report: "The paper's report that the company itself was under investigation could not be confirmed by the AP."

Sloppy AP editors twist correspondent's reporting

Sloppy editors at the Associated Press put another phony headline on their reporter's careful coverage of Blackwater USA.

This time, they took a September 21 story by correspondent Matthew Lee and added a headline that directly contradicts Lee's reporting. The headline on the AP website reads, "Feds Target Blackwater In Weapons Probe."

But Lee doesn't say that in his story. Indeed, he reports the opposite.

(1) Lee never says that federal authorities are targeting the company itself - he reports that they are probing two employees. But he neglects to say are ex-employees whom Blackwater had fired.

(2) In contrast to the headline, Lee cites unnamed US officials who "could not say whether the investigation would result in indictments, how many Blackwater employees are involved or if the company itself . . . is under scrutiny."

(3) The AP reporter quotes the Raleigh News & Observer (Joseph Neff) as "citing unidentified sources" who reported that Blackwater itself was being investigated. But he does not take the newspaper's report at face value. Lee carefully adds in the 10th paragraph of the story, "The paper's report that the company itself was under investigation could not be confirmed by the AP."

So why the misleading headline? At least one AP editor appears to be twisting the reports of his own correspondents, skewing the headlines to reflect negatively on Blackwater. A Google News search shows those headlines have been repeated in newspapers around the world.