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[11] http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,972620,00.html > An article was removed from the Guardian recently... It's still on other websites - with the appropriate editorial comment. > The readers' editor on the reasons why a report > on the Guardian website was deleted This is a truly amazing story. I guess you might call it modular website journalism. On June 2, 2003, die Welt publishes an article, based entirely on English-language sources: "In the case of North Korea, Wolfowitz relies on its neighbours. This refers to the IISS Asia Security Conference in Singapore. Welt does _not_ claim or not directly imply that, according to Wolfowitz, oil had been the was the reason for this war. Anyhow, Welt should know that it was 'Befreiung'. But everyone who read it won't forget that quote. (It will stick to Wolfowitz.) http://www.welt.de/data/2003/06/02/105924.html Then der Tagesspiegel finds this Welt article and promptly writes its own little paragraph - citing Welt as the source. Their headline: "Oil is the reason for Iraq war says Wolfowitz - US Congress is to investigate." NB: there is _nothing_ about US Congress investigating in the Welt article. http://archiv.tagesspiegel.de/archiv/03.06.2003/596952.asp A little later, Guardian journalists find both the Welt article and the Tagesspiegel paragraph. Apparently, they like the latter's headline. So they write: "Wolfowitz: Iraq War Was About Oil." They also take an entire paragraph from the Welt, (the one with the oil quote), translate it, and build their own story around it. And they cite the sources: "The latest comments", writes the Guardian, "were made by Mr Wolfowitz in an address to delegates at an Asian security summit in Singapore at the weekend, and reported today by German newspapers Der Tagesspiegel and Die Welt." (June 4, 2003.) http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0604-10.htm It is ironic that the Guardian should attribute this reporting on the "latest comments" to foreign sources: They themselves published an AP article, including the original oil quote, on May 31, 2003. "U.S. to Put Economic Pressure on N. Korea", d'Arcy Doran, May 31, 203. http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-2736108,00.html Not all critics were satisfied with the retraction, concedes the Guardian: "rigorous checking should have taken place. The hazard of translating remarks from German back into the English in which they were originally made should have been apparent." For the "rigorous checking", they could have gone to their own files. And the backtranslation was quite faithful to the German. It was the interpretation that seemed rather fluid. Here are the three headlines again: Die Welt: "In the case of North Korea, Wolfowitz relies on its neighbours. Der Tagespiegel: "Oil is the reason for Iraq war says Wolfowitz - US Congress is to investigate." The Guardian: "Wolfowitz: Iraq War Was About Oil." ---Elga _______________________________________________ Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk