May 20, 2003  THE MORE I THINK ABOUT IT, the more I wonder if
the Jessica Lynch rescue wasn't a clever Pentagon disinformation
campaign designed to entrap anti-American journalists into
revealing their sloppiness, bias, and willingness to report
untruths as fact. Then again, why bother? They seem to have some
sort of credibility death-wish.  How else could you explain this
Robert Scheer column, which takes the BBC story as an excuse to
foam at the mouth in classically over-the-top Scheer fashion:
After a thorough investigation, the British Broadcasting Corp.
has presented a shocking dissection of the "heroic" rescue of
Pvt. Jessica Lynch, as reported by the U.S. military and a
breathless American press.  A 'thorough investigation" that
involved unnamed sources making charges that were not checked
out, and people saying that the U.S. forces fired blanks,
credulous repetition of unconfirmed facts by parties with an
interest in lying, and obvious ignorance of matters military, as
well as misrepresentation of th