Editing Media coverage of the Iraq War (section)

==Bombing of Al Jazeera==
On April 8, 2003, US aircraft bombed the Baghdad bureau of Qatar satellite TV station [[Al Jazeera Arabic|Al Jazeera]] killing a journalist and wounding another despite the US being informed of the office's precise coordinates prior to the incident. An Al Jazeera correspondent said that very clear, yellow signs reading "Press" covered the building from all sides and on the roof.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://islamicsydney.com/printable.php?id=896 |title=U.S. Missiles Hit Al-Jazeera Office |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060221210315/http://islamicsydney.com/printable.php?id=896 |archive-date=February 21, 2006 |author=IslamOnline |author-link=IslamOnline |agency=News Agencies |date=April 9, 2003 |website=[[MuslimVillage Forums|IslamicSydney.com]]}}</ref> A [[United States Central Command|US Central Command]] spokesman said that the station "was not and never had been a target."<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2927527.stm|title=Al-Jazeera 'hit by missile'|access-date=September 28, 2007 | work=[[BBC News]] | date=April 8, 2003}}</ref> The US government had repeatedly criticized Al Jazeera as "endangering the lives of American troops."

The attack had drawn particular criticism because the [[Kabul]] office of Al Jazeera had been bombed in the [[War in Afghanistan (2001–present)|US invasion of Afghanistan]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1123/dailyUpdate.html |title=British paper: Bush wanted to bomb Al Jazeera |website=[[The Christian Science Monitor]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051126012459/http://csmonitor.com/2005/1123/dailyUpdate.html |archive-date=November 26, 2005 |date=November 23, 2005 |last=Regan |first=Tom}}</ref>

On 2 April 2003, in a speech given in [[New York City]], [[British Home Secretary]] [[David Blunkett]] commented on what he believed to be sympathetic and corrupt reporting of Iraq by Arab news sources. He told the audience that "It's hard to get the true facts if the reporters of Al Jazeera are actually linked into, and are only there because they are provided with facilities and support from, the régime."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/002/605fgcob.asp?pg=2|title=Saddam's Cash |website=[[The Weekly Standard]] |archive-date=June 3, 2004 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040603204737/http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/002/605fgcob.asp?pg=2 |date=May 5, 2003 |last=Hayes |first=Stephen F. |author-link=Stephen F. Hayes}}</ref> His speech came only hours before Al Jazeera was ejected from Baghdad by the US occupation.

A top secret memo leaked by a British civil servant and a parliamentary researcher detailed a lengthy conversation on April 16, 2004 between Prime Minister Blair and President Bush, in which Bush according to British media allegedly proposed bombing the Qatar central office of Al Jazeera.{{Citation needed |date=March 2020 |reason=The provided undated citation was to a dynamic news page at the ''Mirror''. Edit page to see original citation in comment. <!---{{cite web|url=https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/|title=News: latest stories, exclusives, opinion & analysis - Mirror Online|website=www.mirror.co.uk}}---> }} House press secretary, Scott McClellan, describing it as "outlandish" said, "Any such notion that we would engage in that kind of activity is just absurd."<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10269701/site/newsweek/from/RL.5/ |work=[[Newsweek]] | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060528220343/http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10269701/site/newsweek/from/RL.5/ |archive-date=May 28, 2006 |date=November 30, 2005 |last1=Isikoff |first1=Michael |author-link=Michael Isikoff |last2=Hosenball |first2=Mark |author-link2=Mark Hosenball |publisher=[[MSN]] |title=The Case of the Secret Memo}}</ref> A UK government official suggested that the Bush threat had been "humorous, not serious." Another source said Bush was "deadly serious." The UK government refuses to publish the memo and two civil servants have been charged with violating Britain's Official Secrets Act for allegedly disclosing the document.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/22/AR2005112201784.html | newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] | title=Paper Says Bush Talked of Bombing Arab TV Network | first1=Kevin | last1=Sullivan | first2=Walter | last2=Pincus | date=November 23, 2005 | access-date=May 12, 2010 |author-link1=Kevin Sullivan (journalist) |author-link2=Walter Pincus}}</ref> For a more full discussion, see [[Al Jazeera bombing memo]].