After the several blogs including EU Referendum, Little Green Footballs, and a German TV program documented the propaganda efforts of a Hezbollah operative known as Green Helmet, Kathy Gannon the AP’s bureau chief in Iran ( I was not aware she was a bureau chief at the time) wrote a glowing feature on Green Helmet.
Appalled by Ms. Gannon’s shoddy if not intentionally dishonest reporting, On August 12, I wrote the following email to the AP’s media relations dept:

Dear Mr. Jack Stokes,

My name is Rick Calvert I am the propietor of The Real Ugly American Blog.  I would like to interview one of your reporters or her editor if possible regarding a report she filed titled “Green Helmet” helps rescue the wounded.

here is a link to the report on Yahoo News:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060812/ap_on_re_mi_ea/mideast_fighting_green_helmet_1

In fairness I should state up front that I believe Ms. Gannon should be fired over this report and have stated so publicly on my blog.

I would like to ask several questions including how did she verify his employment as a civil defense worker?

Does she have any evidence of him “digging in the rubble at Qana for hours”?

Was she in Qana the day of the rescue efforts July 30 2006?

Can she explain if he was in fact digging for hours why there is no visable dirt on his clothing in the numerous photographs he posed for that day?

Has she seen the German video of him directing photographers and video cameramen to get better angles of dead children?

Did she ask him to explain why he did this?

why didn’t she mention any of the specific evidence that suggests he is a propaganda minister for Hezbollah?

Can she explain why he is wearing a blue jacket and helmet in the photo included in her article?

This is not the garb of a defense worker but of a journalist. Did some AP journalist lend him their gear?
Did she accept Mr. Salam Daher his word that he is not a member of Hezbollah or did she investigate his background in an attempt to try and verify that fact in anyway?

Can she explain the reason she chose to file a puff piece on this man and can anyone at AP explain why you chose to print it?

I look forward to your reply.

Best regards,
Rick Calvert
Therealuglyamerican.com

As of today no one from the AP has replied. Instead Ms. Gannon has filed another article defending Green Helmet, and attempts to elicit sympathy for him reporting he was recently wounded while conducting “rescue efforts”.

She does (unwittingly no doubt) answers at least one of my questions in the article.  She or someone at the AP has seen the German video documenting Green Helmet’s propaganda campaign in Qana.

It is also reasonable to conlcude being she is the Iranian bureau cheif that she was not in Qana during the rescue efforts. However I will continue to try and confirm this with the AP before stating it as fact.

I plan to write the AP again today and encourage all of my fellow bloggers particularly the heavy hitters to do the same and demand some answers from the AP and Ms. Gannon. Of course I will update when they do or do not reply. 

If any of you would like to suggest other questions to ask of Ms. Gannon please leave them in the comment section.

Others blogging this:
Little Green Footballs points out at least two facts Ms. Gannon got wrong in her latest piece.

Riehl World View had the first report I saw of Ms. Gannon being the AP’s Iranian bureau cheif.

Flopping Aces has more posed photos from Lebanon.

and yet another at stikNstein.

RightWinged.com

I guess we should be thankful that at least Fox News finally aired it.

Michael van der Galien at The Moderate Voice gets it.

Kathy doesn’t even wonder whether or not there is something ethically wrong with that. Furthermore, she does know about the video that exposes Salam “Green Helmet” to be what he: a Hizbullah master of propaganda.

 Why doesn’t the AP?

Blue Crab Boulevard:

The Western media is completely unable to see the moral implications of what it is doing at this point. This latest piece demonstrates that quite clearly. Gannon acknowledges the video exists (only on one site, mind you. Never mind that it is all over the web) and reports that the subject of the article admits to the behavior he is being criticized for.

Then she tries to get readers to feel sorry for the guy.

I feel sorry for her. And for all of us.

There will be more to this story.