WKOW aired it as is. That may shock a few people who don't believe propaganda belongs on US airwaves. But what WKOW was nothing compared to what other stations did.
Fox 11 had their anchors note, before tossing to Becky DeVries, that "the military released video of Camp Cropper, along with interviews from some Wisconsin soldiers working there." They then went to DeVries and, word for word, her words were those of Sgt. Morello. Fox 11's reporter read, word-for-word, US military copy without noting that, presented it as her own.
Worst of all was WBAY's Jeff Alexander. Jeff surpassed DeVries because not only did he read Morello's copy word-for-word, no one -- not anchors, not Alexander -- made an effort to explain that this footage was from the US military. So Jeff Alexander passed himself off to viewers as the source of this report and as someone who had visited Iraq recently for the footage.
None of the three stations offered reporting. Military public affairs films are not reporting and do not belong on news shows. Of the three offenders, at least WKOW didn't attempt to disguise what it was they were airing. Fox 11 did admit that the footage was from the US military but never noted that the copy -- which Becky DeVries read -- also was. Jeff Alexander is just a disgrace. No excuses, no minimization.
And the other big disgrace? All your media watchdogs that missed it or refused to note it. C.I. reported on it Wednesday in "Military propaganda airs in Wisconsin."
