Adam Gadahn-How Did the Media Blow it?

Adam Gadahn


Now that it is apparent that the terror suspect arrested in Pakistan is not Adam Gadahn, the obvious question after more than 24 hours of confusion, is how did the media get this all wrong?

Sunday, the news was breaking all over the media and internet that Gadahn had been arrested in Karachi. At first, the reports (like mine) were cautious, but gradually, one outlet after another ran with the story that Gadahn was truly in custody though there was no official confirmation-only a couple of unnamed Pakistani government sources speaking on condition of anonymity. On Sunday afternoon, CNN put it on their 24 hour TV news channel.

Meanwhile, Fox News, after initially going with the story, backtracked and stayed with the news only that Gadahn had reportedly made another videotape-praising Army Major Nidal Hasan for the Ft Hood shooting. Gradually, the other major networks began backtracking as it became more apparent that the person arrested was a certain Pennsylvania-born Abu Yahya Adam, whose name and aliases were somewhat similar to Gadahn's. By yesterday, reports were all indicating that the person in question was not Gadahn.

Actually, at this point, it is still not official who it is. Who knows, maybe this will do another 180 in the coming hours or days.

Careless reporting? Perhaps. Somebody was obviously confused. It seems the only news source that got it right was the English-language daily, Dawn, of Pakistan. They reported that the person in question was Abu Yahya and showed a photo of a man in custody with a sack over his head, which at least one US news source said was Gadahn. Dawn, to my knowledge, never reported that the person was Gadahn.

In my coverage (entitled; "Has Adam Gadahn been arrested in Pakistan?"), I repeated the coverage with a cautionary note about the mysterious Abu Yahya reported by Dawn. I then posted a series of msm updates as they came in. Fortunately, for me, I never popped the champagne cork on this site.

Moral of the story? Don't believe everything you hear in the media. (Unless it's Fousesquawk, of course-The Most Trusted Name in News).