Here’s the Associated Press’s diversionary article about the Bilal Hussein controversy, with a blatant straw man attack on the blogosphere: AP photographer’s detention spurs debate.

The U.S. military’s imprisonment of an Associated Press photographer in Iraq has spurred a new round of debate about the role of journalists in a war zone, especially those covering insurgents and terrorists.

Internet critics of the news media said the AP’s announcement on Sunday that Bilal Hussein, who covered the war in Fallujah and Ramadi, was in a U.S. military prison as a security threat was vindication of their accusations that he was aiding the enemy.

But advocates of the press coverage questioned whether the critics wanted to block any coverage that doesn’t portray the U.S. policy in the best light. An independent press must fully and accurately cover a conflict from all sides, they said.

This is nonsense, and it’s why the term “straw man” was invented. I have not seen a single blogger advocate “blocking coverage that doesn’t portray the US policy in the best light,” and I have certainly never advocated such a thing myself.

This is a completely invented charge with no basis in reality.

What bloggers are pointing out is that the Associated Press (and Reuters, and CNN, and almost every Western news service) is allowing their coverage to be influenced and directed by terrorists, for propaganda purposes. There are literally thousands of examples of this agenda at LGF.

But you don’t have to take my word for it. Even Dan Rather admits it.