In Colombia, Reporters Trust, Don't Verify, Official Sources

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"The media's over-reliance on official sources, despite ... a long history of lying and manipulation by those sources," often makes the media "an instrument of U.S. foreign policy," writes Garry Leech. On February 12, Reuters and Spain's EFE reported "that leftist rebels belonging to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) had massacred six members of a family, including an 80-year-old woman. The entire story ... was based on the statements of a single Colombian government official." U.S. outlets, including the Houston Chronicle and ABC News, ran the story. But "it was later revealed that the FARC were not in fact responsible. ... The interior minister of the department of Antioquia ... acknowledged that following an initial investigation into the killings, 'The method of operation indicates [the perpetrators] to be paramilitaries.'" Only EFE ran a follow-up story. A United Nations report released the same week documented "an increase in extra-judicial killings by Colombian soldiers and police."