Giving Journalists a Bad Name

Jules Crittenden catches some fictionalists - they are NOT journalists - with their pants down. An outfit with whom I was happily unfamiliar, called IPS, or Inter Press Service News - ran an article about how Iraqi doctors are naming a form of malaria "Blackwater," after the "mercenary company" which, the alleged journalists say, is "the lethal U.S.-based company which has been responsible for the death of countless Iraqis." (No, I won't link to their story. If you like this kind of fiction, you can find it.)

Only trouble is, this form of malaria has been called "blackwater fever" since the mid-19th century. It has to do with the urine turning black, a fact the reporters either did not know or did not consider in any way significant to their slam. I mean, why let the facts get in the way of a good old anti-American slur?

As I say, this isn't journalism. It's straight fiction. And lousy fiction at that. Passing it off as an offering from a "news" agency is beneath contempt.

Hat tip: Instapundit