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Mark · Site Admin Joined: 13 Nov 2007 Posts: 1052

Photos Allegedly From FARC PC Undermine Colombian Credibility

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/3483

Excerpt:

After weeks of contradictory and incomplete answers from El Tiempo, I traveled from Quito to their Bogotá office to ask some questions in person. El Tiempo reporters had at first confirmed that the photos were from the FARC laptops and were unsure of why they were removed from El Tiempo’s Web site. El Tiempo Justice editor Jhon Torres then told me that they were not from the laptop and that a retraction had been issued. (I was unable to find a retraction in any of El Tiempo’s March or April archives. Journalistic ethics require news outlets to issue corrections if doubts emerge as to the validity of evidence used to support an article.)

In an interview this past Tuesday, Torres told me that the photos were removed from the Web site because of doubts that they were really found on the FARC laptops. According to Torres, however, their intelligence source has not changed his claim that the photos are from the laptops.

TereM. · Facilitator Joined: 26 Apr 2008 Posts: 9

Very interesting Mark!
I wish I could see this type of news in the regular media. Smilie_PDT

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TereM.

Mark · Site Admin Joined: 13 Nov 2007 Posts: 1052

The "regular media" is privately owned, Tere. Private corporations operate on the capitalist principle that the only important thing is profit, so they don't care about people or truth. They publish what they're paid to publish or what will benefit them. If the government tells them to publish lies, they do it, because they know that the government will owe them one when they ask for more deregulation. Publishing the truth, when it might make the government angry, isn't something they are willing to do, as it might interfere with their profits.

Only where the media is public, not private, can there be freedom of the press.