Alleged Journalism

I was happy to see Peter Mansbridge lead with the Haditha investigation story on tonight's CBC news.

I was less happy to hear them dub it "the alleged massacre". The facts of a massacre are right there in the three houses with bloody corpses shot at close range by U.S. Marines in the middle of the night. At least 20 were killed, including five children and a blind septagenarian man. One child was shot up until her head was blown off, according to the mother of a Marine sent in the following day as part of the clean-up team. Child witnesses described these incidents and forensics back it up.

I just don't see the need to qualify that with "alleged". A massacre is a massacre and the word is altogether appropriate. There's no point trying to be nice about it.

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