THIS JUST IN: Brian Ross is a Tool . . .

. . . of terrorist

Hoda Osman one of Brian Ross' Investigative Team!! posting on The Blotter, regurgitates terrorists talking points

The U.S. secretly agreed to the "real demands" set by the group behind the August 14 kidnapping of two Fox News journalists in Gaza, according to a report in the pan-Arab newspaper al Hayat.

The paper quotes "informed sources close to the mediations" as saying that the U.S. secretly negotiated with the group through leaders of "the Palestinian popular resistance committees."

This is Lord Haw-Haw level crap. Utterly ridiculous, stupendously ill-considered, and speaks to a total disregard for journalistic standards and displays a desire to spin the on going events in the Global War on Terror in favor of the terrorists.

That there are biased news organizations bought for and paid for by various anti-American (and objectively pro-terrorist) groups is well known and obvious. Perusing Dar Al Hayat's English language content, I'm sensing the usual anti-Israeli, anti-American spin, but also a strong strain of pro-Syrian, pro-Hezbollah, and anti-current Lebanese government rhetoric (suggesting funding from Assad). If Brian Ross' Investigative Team can't figure out they are being spun, or worse are they themselves the spinners, then they should be called out by the rest of the media.

When 'responsible' media sources begin picking up these stories fables without placing them under a critical microscope or presenting them with the proper skepticism, they are doing themselves a disservice and are endangering everyone.

Also, I'm rather suspicious that the 'report' being paraphrased isn't up on Al Hayat's English language website. Either they haven't translated it themselves yet, or they don't plan on translating it since they know it's pure drivel. I suspect like some Arabic language media sources they print outrageous lies in their own tongue and moderate their tone considerably when redoing the stories for English language audiences.

I don't know if it's pure BDS that leads them to trust second hand sources close to terrorist organizations over the State Department, or simply a desire to break a story, given past performances, I'm inclined to believe the worst.

(hat tip TVNewser)