Bryan Preston at Hot Air, who recently returned from a trip to Iraq with Michelle Malkin, caught the misleading headline (still there) in a story by newly-promoted AP Baghdad news editor Kim Gamel:

The headline conveys the obvious impression that our troops are fighting Iraqi soldiers and not terrorists/"insurgents."

Based on the story that follows, the headline is obviously false.

Bryan thought the headline at the original story had been updated, but that turns out to have been incorrect. Yours truly tipped him, and he noted, that the story is still there in all its ignominy. What's more, he noted, by reviewing Google News results, that the false headline, even if corrected now, has spread around the country and around the world. Further supporting the Pandora's Box nature of the AP's journalistic malpractice, here's a regular Google search on the headline (in quotes) showing that it still generates thousands of hits. And even though most of underlying linked stories appear to have different titles now, some (like this one) still have the original.

It doesn't seem to be much of a stretch to think that either Ms. Gamel or a headline writer she didn't watch very closely is secretly savoring a "mission accomplished" moment.

Bryan's thoughts at his first post are stronger:

There’s no excuse for this, AP. That headline is a blatant manipulation of words to create a false picture of events in Iraq....

I have to say, I no longer trust a single word the AP reports from Iraq. Not. One. Word. I’ve been there. The AP’s methods and its overt bias call into doubt every single story it has published from Iraq since the war began. Its entire method of operation over there is fatally flawed, and it’s clear that the editors outside the country are just waiting to paint every single event as a disaster for our troops. They’ll even write up lies in their headlines to do it.

After the proven-false "Burning Six" story and the misadventures of the non-existent Jamil Hussein*, I find it difficult to dispute Bryan's contentions. The AP's falsely-headlined story will likely have a long life, like this lying headline about 2005's riots in Toledo, Ohio, that didn't go away for almost a year.

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* - Jamil Hussein "exists" under another name, a fact NOT reported by AP as they used him under that undisclosed pseudonym (yet another instance of journalistic malpractice) at least 61 times, and then didn't give his real name to military investigators attempting to locate him. Then when the misled searchers reported no record of him, the AP dishonestly crowed that they were vindicated, and revealed his true name. What a load -- Either AP had been deceived about Hussein's real name all along and had failed to investigate Jamil's bona fides, or they knowingly and deliberately misled and wasted the time of military investigators. If I were working at a big company and telling gullible reporters for years that my real name was Tom Cruise as I spread false stories, nobody at my employer would be able to find me either.

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Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.

—Tom Blumer is president of a training and development company in Mason, Ohio, and is a contributing editor to NewsBusters