The American Spectator : ABC News' Credibility 'Lost in Translation'

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Loose Canons

ABC News’ Credibility ‘Lost in Translation’

By Jed Babbin on 9.22.10 @ 6:09AM

Brian Ross turns fabulist again.

ABC News President David Westin is resigning and plans to leave the company before the end of the year, reportedly because of friction between him and executives at parent Walt Disney Company over the network’s poor profits. But poor profits won’t be the only problem that confronts Westin’s successor. Whoever it is will also have to deal with some of the loose cannons rattling around ABC News’ decks.

One of them is a Westin favorite, investigative reporter Brian Ross, who has established a fabulist record that extends over nine years, most of Westin’s tenure. In his latest report, Ross has cobbled together information from irrelevant or financially interested sources to condemn an Army contractor for committing fraud against the government. And not just any fraud: one that could endanger the lives of U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

That report — Ross’s latest, entitled “Lost in Translation” — is an example of the problem Ross poses for the network. The report is centered on an accusation that a company called Mission Essential Personnel (“MEP”) committed fraud in providing U.S. forces in Afghanistan with translators who can’t speak the languages troops need to communicate with Afghans.

This report is editorially contrived, built misleadingly around the allegations of a former MEP employee who has a financial interest in accusing MEP of fraud.

Ross’s story begins with a video made by a British journalist’s film crew following U.S. Army troops in 2008. It shows a U.S. patrol sergeant trying to communicate with a local elder. The elder says there’s no security in the village but the translator tells the sergeant that there are no problems, and the translator’s ineptitude leads from miscommunication to hostility between the troops and the elder who wants their help.

The report then switches to an interview with decorated Afghanistan veteran SSgt. Genevieve Chase. Chase says that there were many times she was working with an interpreter and — because of her own training — knew “instantly that he wasn’t communicating what I had just said.”

The next scene begins at the front of the MEP offices in Columbus, Ohio, and then shifts to an MEP ad recruiting translators and to congressional testimony given by MEP’s CEO saying MEP had filled 97% of the Army’s needs. Ross says that the more translators MEP provides, the more money it makes, implying a motive for fraud.

Then Ross gets to the protagonist of the story, a “whistleblower” named Paul Funk. Funk is the plaintiff in a “qui tam” lawsuit against MEP, alleging that it committed fraud by providing the Army with interpreters that MEP knew were unqualified.

(“Qui tam” lawsuits are created by the Civil False Claims Act, which dates back to the Civil War. It enables private citizens to sue in the government’s name and keep part of whatever damages may be recovered.)

In a written ABCnews.com story the day before the report aired, Ross and two co-authors lead with the statement that according to Funk more than one quarter of the MEP translators failed language proficiency exams but were sent to the battlefield anyway. Funk repeats that charge in the broadcast report.

Ross’s broadcast finishes with the end of the British-filmed segment from 2008 in which the translator apparently makes up an answer that the village elder hadn’t given, incorrectly telling the U.S. sergeant that the elder said he hadn’t seen the Taliban for one year, though the elder had said he wanted to cooperate with U.S. forces.

But the translator in the British film wasn’t an MEP employee. SSgt. Chase wasn’t in Afghanistan after 2006 and MEP didn’t arrive until 2007. And Ross didn’t report that qui tam plaintiff Paul Funk has a major financial interest in the lawsuit.

MY CALL AND E-MAIL TO ABC seeking an interview with Ross resulted in a conversation with one of the report’s two producers, Matthew Mosk (who is also one of Ross’s co-authors in the ABCnews.com story).

Mosk insisted that the report wasn’t about MEP but about a bigger issue: the question of mistranslation in Afghanistan. He told me MEP was just one element of the broader story. But the story begins and ends with allegations against MEP, and about one-third of the eight-minute report focuses specifically on it.

Ross’s report — after beginning with the British film — mentions briefly, about two and a half minutes into the report, that the translator in the film isn’t an MEP employee. But after Funk’s allegations are aired, it goes back to the British film, effectively tying it again to MEP. (Ross does mention that MEP uses the British film in its instructional materials as a bad example.)

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About the Author

Jed Babbin served as a Deputy Undersecretary of Defense under George H.W. Bush. He is the author of several bestselling books including Inside the Asylum and In the Words of Our Enemies. You can follow him on Twitter @jedbabbin.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (63) | Leave a comment Leave a comment

Tim*| 9.22.10 @ 6:46AM

We are in A Media War . Bankrupt The Mainstream Media .

Shamus| 9.22.10 @ 7:36AM

The US government is drowning in debt, yet it will not take basic steps monetize assets. The airwaves used by ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox are national assets that are provided gratis to these big corporations. This policy is a relic of the last century which needs to go the way of the poodle skirt. Not only are big corporations easily able to pay for this bandwidth, there is also no valid reason not to charge them for it.

Ken| 9.22.10 @ 10:01AM

Of course there is. The US government doesn't own the bandwidth.

Shamus| 9.22.10 @ 11:10AM

Then who does? ABC and CBS?

Tom Anderson| 9.22.10 @ 11:42AM

Broadcasting 101. The public owns the airwaves. The government regulates them on the behalf of the public.

Technically speaking, for broadcast airwaves, the rules were that broadcast stations have to offer certain amount of minutes of public information (including time on the hour) per hour. The rest of the time was available to the broadcaster to use. That was the original intent of broadcast airwaves, to provide information to the community.

Shamus| 9.22.10 @ 12:04PM

Sure, this might have made sense before cable, internet, and wireless. Everyone else pays for their broadband. Why should taxpayers donate billions of dollars to Sumner Redstone and Rupert Murdoch?

Al Adab| 9.22.10 @ 12:12PM

Guys,
Ask any radio station owner and he will tell you the cost of using the airwaves. What is the actual justification for government regulation of broadcasting? Why is their a government agency that oversees content and "public interest" whatever that is in broadcast operations. They mandatee public service time. Is not lost revenue a cost to business?

Al Adab| 9.22.10 @ 12:13PM

Oops: Why is there a government agency... wrong there, there. :)

Shamus| 9.22.10 @ 1:23PM

Until recently it was not possible to send more than one TV signal across a given segment of bandwidth, so the government stepped in to license users.

Given the advent of new technology this makes no sense. The internet provides bandwidth comparable to millions of broadcast channels. The broadcast spectrum should be auctioned off to the highest bidder, and the money collected used to pay down the public debt. Mandates for public interest should be scrapped and revenue should be collected instead. Business would pay the government what it thought broadcast spectrum was worth, and public debt could be reduced. The priority for the government should be to pay down its debt rather than tell business how to use broadcast spectrum.

joli| 9.22.10 @ 1:59PM

Maybe this would get rid of all those shopping channels and prevent providers from advertising 99 channels when only 8 of them are worth a darn.

Litvi| 9.22.10 @ 4:57PM

You keep talking about airwaves... but do you (or anyone you know) watch broadcast TV? The infrastructure used by the vast majority of the public (viewer and broadcaster alike) is through privately owned cables and satellites.

Forget the airwaves - look out for the FCC - unelected and unchecked by Congress - who are trying to regulate broadband networks using 1930's era Title II antitrust thinking. Yes, that would be the same broadband network that carries your internet, TV (and likely your home phone) signals simultaneously.

Forget the airwaves, but remember the 10 Cannots. Rather, the 11th... you can't open up communication for some people by reducing it for others.

Mel Torme| 9.23.10 @ 1:56PM

Shamus, do you understand that radio signals go through the air (and would through a vacuum too)? Seriously, do you not understand this? High-speed internet service costs money as there is cable, routers and more electronics involved in getting the signal from one place to another.

The frequency spectrum is a part of the physical world. Light waves have a range of frequencies, infrared another, down to some low frequencies that are good for certain things, like AM, FM radio, TV, aviation radio, etc. and up high to the GHz one used by mobile phones.

What in the heck should the government have to do with it, other than being there (in the form of civil courts) for disputes involving interfering broadcasts (same area at the same frequencies or too close - this gets into the real meaning of "bandwidth", not the BS use of the term in use now (which should just be "capacity"))?

What's the frequency, Shamus, I mean Kenneth?

RDN in Houston| 9.22.10 @ 4:04PM

"The airwaves used by ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox are national assets that are provided gratis to these big corporations."

The airwaves are no more national assets than are mineral deposits, water, or the air that we breath. The concept that we own national assets is a progressive concoction and is not found in the Constitution.

loulou| 9.22.10 @ 1:48PM

Bankrupt the MSM and soon we'll be bailing them out.

JR| 9.22.10 @ 10:21PM

MSM is already bankrupt. They are praying for a bailout...ergo, they kowtow to the progressives. They sincerely hope that their fortunes will be restored by O's novel interpretation of the "Fairness Doctrine."
No bailouts or government intervention, no broadcast (and most print) MSM.

Lullabys, Legends and Lies| 9.22.10 @ 7:27AM

If a tree falls in the woods, but nobody's around to hear it, does really make a noise? Well yes, I believe it does, but I'm not in the middle of the woods, so it really doesn't bother me if it does or doesn't. So Brian Ross is making a lot of noise over there at ABC news, but who really cares? If you didn't include the picture of Brian Ross at the top of this article, I couldn't have picked this guy out of a lineup if my life depended on it. ABC, CBS, and NBC (and their retarded twin MSLSD) don't have ratings anymore, and every month they sink even lower (is that possible if they don't have ratings to begin with?). It's so bad over there at CBS that Dan Rather's laughing at them now, and Dan lost half of the ratings Walter Cronkite had. They're all dying a slow death, like that stupid frog in the boiling water, too dumb to know it's boiling to death, too stupid to jump the hell out of the water before it's too late. Whoever takes over at ABC news, better realize that they had better change their ways, or the water will just continue to boil, as death takes over them slowly. Psst, here's a hint, Jump out!!

voice of reason| 9.23.10 @ 1:29AM

if a tree falls on brian ross
does his producer
use the clip
at once, at 6:00 or not at all

Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 9.22.10 @ 8:07AM

I think the news here is that anyone still considers ABC, CBS, NBC, CNBC or MSNBC as credible news sources.

UpChuck.Liberals| 9.22.10 @ 5:58PM

I believe you left out CNN also.

Roscoe| 9.24.10 @ 4:31PM

Well, everybody else leaves them out!

David W| 9.22.10 @ 9:50PM

I've said it before and I'll say it again. We need to pay attention to what the MSM is saying, no matter how lame, how wrong, how biased, etc. If they lie, which they will do, we must point it out. If they are biased, which they are, we must point it out. You never know who is watching and who may be swayed by what Chris "I get a woody whenever I see Barack Obama" Matthews may say. Remember what the law of unintended consequences or the butterfly effect or the result of all that liberal inbreeding could cause.

Louis Jenkins| 9.22.10 @ 8:54AM

I'll tell you how ABC can improve their ratings. Hire a conservative talk show host to do the news. Then the whole kit would turn around in a heart beat. Otherwise, choke on your poor ratings ABC, et al. I seldom watch the even news, other than to see what kind of lies, errors, spin, and omissions they are spewing.

Redstateboy| 9.22.10 @ 9:33AM

I exclusively watched CBS Evening News (because that's what my parents watched) and then when it ended I switched to the McNeil/Lehrer News Hour and I became a Flaming Liber-ul. Coincidence?
Thank God (and I'm not joking.. Thank God!) I grew up and - like the Apostle Paul.. "put away childish things and became a Man" and became a Conservative.

TR| 9.22.10 @ 10:23AM

"If you are 20 and not a liberal you have no heart. If you are 40 and not a conservative you have no brain"

Winston Churchill

wandak | 9.22.10 @ 11:30AM

So, grow up!

Appleby| 9.22.10 @ 2:52PM

I have never been a liberal.

noneofyourbusiness| 9.22.10 @ 6:06PM

And if you are 45 and believe that either liberals or conservatives can actually solve common sense practical problems with ideologically based prescriptions, then you haven't learned a thing.

Cheers!

Tim*| 9.22.10 @ 8:05PM

Uh Oh ! It's Know-it-All Canuck lecturin' We Great Unwashed Americans again.

Suck Ice !

Let's go after THEM!| 9.22.10 @ 10:00AM

Why can't someone here at Am Spec (Hello Mr. Tyrrell?) start a media campaign that starts questioning the media anchors in public----on TV ads, Newspapers and billboards?

Put Courics face on a billboard with "You Lie" underneath her smug mug and let her defend herself. OK, something softer like; " Liberal and Misleading: They want you un-informed".

High time we started knee-capping these people. They are out EVERY DAY lying about us---why don't we simply tell the truth about them. Call it our October surprise----we start going after them like they go after Conservatives.

If they (combine Morning and evening newscasts) lost just 2% of their audience due to calling them out, that would be over half a million people a day!!

Start it---we'll fund something like this to see their thin skin peel back!!

noneofyourbusiness| 9.22.10 @ 6:08PM

It's called PoliFacts, and Fox is far and away the worst offender.

Cheers!

Emma| 9.22.10 @ 10:02AM

Network news (and the "news story" programs) are never (and I do LITERALLY mean NEVER) on in our home. Haven't been for ten years.

The last thing these programs do is provide news. They are mostly a delivery system for marketing aimed at older people, of which I am one. (Of course, as obama's Medicare savings plans kick in, this demographic will become less and less significant as our death rates skyrocket.)

The journoLists just don't qualify for real jobs any more. That's why they keep doing this pathetic level of work (and get paid for it???? now there's the real mystery).

The owner and one employee from our local rural telephone company have been plowing a mile long ditch along our country road laying a new piece of phone cable this week. These are the people who make this country work.

TR| 9.22.10 @ 10:46AM

sorry, Emma. I posted a response to you but it showed up under Kylies's post below.

Kylie Estwick| 9.22.10 @ 10:21AM

It's absolutely hysterical for me to see a group of people who get their "news" from a news organization which deliberately fabricates stories (Fox News), attempt to call into question the integrity of any legitimate news organization.

So, when you all are sitting around blaming Obama for all your problems, does it bother you at all that you quote opinion pieces barely based in fact? Just wondering what that feels like to always be wrong. Must sting a little.

TR| 9.22.10 @ 10:27AM

Same here, Emma. I turned off the major network news over 12 years ago. The liberal agenda push became so blatant that I could not stomach the daily lies and the refusal to give a balanced report.

TR| 9.22.10 @ 10:34AM

That is your opinion, Kylie.
Fox is truly fair and balanced, and the others are liberal sounding blocks and merely an arm of the democrat socialist party.

Legitimate? Well, the word means legal, so that would be true. They are covered by the 1st Amendment just as Fox News is. Lacking ethics would be a better word. CNN/ABC/CBS/NBC/CNBC/MSNBC all are liberal agenda driven. I enjoy how you leftists always get your panties in a bunch over the balanced reporting of Fox. You never have evidence of bias, but then again, any reporting of liberal deceit and hypocrisy causes you all to blow a gasket. You had it so good for so many decades. One sided reporting, cramming your lies down our throats daily without retort. Well, those days ended with the bravery of Fox.
Opinion is opinion, not news. Learn the difference.
Just wondering what it feels like to always be wrong. Must sting a lot.

Tom| 9.22.10 @ 10:41AM

Kylie,
Have anything substantive to say about the article or are you just ranting? Because you failed to point out any shortcomings you may or may not see. I am curious, is this just you releasing bile or did you really have a point about the article?

John II| 9.22.10 @ 10:54AM

It would probably be more accurate for you to have end-stopped your comment after the first five words, Kylie. You do indeed sound chronically hysterical.

RCV| 9.22.10 @ 11:48AM

John - Some cranky guy is posting in your name today.

RCV| 9.22.10 @ 12:41PM

I'm Cranky Today.

I'm Constipated Again.

John II| 9.22.10 @ 12:55PM

No--it's me, Roberto. Summer's over and classes have started--always a challenge to my low crap tolerance. And I'm just warming up.

RCV| 9.22.10 @ 1:37PM

My torts professor in law school used to have a "bullshit" stamp that he used liberally early in the semester in getting over the early rush of nonsense on exams by unprepared students. It might help, at least with the written garbage.

RCV| 9.22.10 @ 2:01PM

Brrrrrrrrruuummmmp !

Ahhh ! The prune juice is startin' to work .

Anthony| 9.22.10 @ 11:32AM

Whoa, Hey guys, we got ourselves a gen u ine Koolaid drinker here with Kylie.
Tell me dear, were you the one who created the false TANG memo and gave it to Bill Burkett that ole "right down the middle news" Dan Rather and Mary Mapes choked on?
I believe dear that this story qualifies as fabricated news, along with the MSMs anthropogenic global warming, er climate disruption, hoax. Would you not agree?
As far as being wrong about Obozo, may I suggest dear that you remain up in the crows nest as Obozo's faithful lookout as the good ship Obozo heads for the icebergs, yes the same ones that haven't melted.
Oh, and to whittle away the time up in crows nest, take a copy of Newsweek with you.
Bon Voyage and watch out for Polar bears!!!

Nick in Virginia| 9.22.10 @ 11:55AM

Kylie,

Just because YOU say that Fox "deliberately fabricates stories" doesn't mean its true. You probably got that line from Jimmy Carter the other night (or maybe the junkie Janene Garofolo). Neither Carter, you, nor most of the people who criticize Fox ever give examples of "fabricated stories".

So I can only assume you are just repeating the Democratic Party talking points (possibly for a fee, for every post you make - after all, that would count as an 0bama "saved or created job"). Come up with some examples, ALLOW YOUR COMPETITION TO RESPOND (because what you call a "fabrication" is quite possibly a difference in interpretation or simply a mistake), go through the same process with YOUR favorite networks, and THEN see how Fox compares with the MSM that you apparently adore. I'll wager that you come out on the losing end of that comparison.

Actually, I'll take that statement back. I'll wager that you'll never go through with it.

Steve A| 9.22.10 @ 12:12PM

Hey Kylie, We really do not blame Obama for our problems, it's the Mensa quality voters like you who pulled the lever for him that we really blame. Obama is just being true to what he said he would do, as you cheerlead. Put the pom poms down & read a book about the great achievements of socialized economy. Good luck finding one.

LeftCoastRightBrain| 9.22.10 @ 1:53PM

Yea..ah...Kylie, do you have ONE (as in 1) example of a story that Fox News "deliberately fabricates"? One. I'm only asking for one.

My guess is that this is just a HuffPo, DummyUnderground, Moveon.org talking point and you've got NOTHING.

Nancy inNC| 9.22.10 @ 4:56PM

Could you be a little more specific?

And would you be so kind as to tell me what story Fox News has fabricated?

Didn't think so.

Karina| 9.22.10 @ 5:00PM

Well, Kylie, always glad to read the humorous comments from the Witch of Eastwick. Thanks for giving us the chance to laugh at you.You go grrrrlll!

Rob| 9.23.10 @ 2:52PM

Poor Kylie, it must suck to be you. Don't worry the mother ship will soon return to take you to your home plant. Have a safe trip.

coal carrier| 9.22.10 @ 10:35AM

When I hear the names Katie Couric, Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw, Andrea Mitchell, Keith Olbermann, Ed Schultz, Chris Matthews, Wolf Blitzer, Arianna Huffington

I wonder- What the hell are they going to make up today?

Kenneth E. MacAlister Jr.| 9.22.10 @ 10:36AM

ABC News had credibility? Who knew.

DEIN| 9.22.10 @ 10:55AM

Estwick-please identify the fabricated Fox news stories you are talking about;neither this article or any of the comments even mentions Obama; in fact these events allegedly took place during Bush years,except for the fabricated Toyota problems. Are you feeling a little sensitive today?Article is about Ross, not Obama.

ohiojb| 9.22.10 @ 12:35PM

ABC and all of their ilk are no longer the mainstream media. They are alternative media. We define who the mainstream media are, and no one is listening, watching, or buying.
This site, among so many others as well as talk radio, is the mainstream.

Patriots, let's keep the pressure on.

John II| 9.22.10 @ 12:59PM

Whoa. I've been called a lot of things in my day, but no one ever called me "mainstream." Does this mean I have to start wearing a tie?

And now back to Jeeves and Wooster, for sartorial advisement.

RCV| 9.22.10 @ 1:35PM

He's back!

RLH| 9.22.10 @ 1:21PM

Here's some FLASH news for Kylie.
Most of the posts on this site understand America is an exceptional nation. American people are essentially good, generous and our actions have accomplished more positive things in this sorry world than any other country in history.
However our country is in the grip of a post soverign government and media. Supported by people like Kylie who have rejected the premise that the United States is that great and good country. We must have a complete transformation according to Obama, the progressive media and the Kylieites. What they do not understand is a fundmental change has taken place and things will never be the same after
November 2010. The progressives Marxests are done and if the Republican elites do not get on board, within two or three elections cycles they will be gone as well.

John II| 9.22.10 @ 4:33PM

You have to LOVE that mugshot of Ross at the head of the post! If he ever gets canned at ABC, he can always take his pick of a cushy communication chair in the ivy league, with inflated salary to match the ego. He's a natural lefty academician. He's already got the contemptuous, self-regarding smirk down pat.

Thom| 9.22.10 @ 5:11PM

Brian Ross is the least of the Asinine Broadcast Company’s problems. Even being part of the Mickey Mouse Corporation can be overcome. On balance the A.B.C. is probably the best of the three network based Democrat profit seeking agenda based propaganda organizations. I turned off “network news” during the first Gulf War because of their obvious cheerleading for the enemy. The other two uglier sister Democrat outfits are almost the best friends this Nation’s enemies have on a regular basis outside of the Democrat leadership itself.

Never the less, the three Democrat “network” sisters, the Clinton News Network and most larger Urban News Papers dwarf the reach and coverage of what FNS and Talk Radio combined can approach. When you add in National Puke Radio and the government funded arm of the Democrat Party, PBS Heir Himmler has to be smiling from the grave at the level of control the Democrat Party has for essentially free. Network News is essentially free still for tens of millions of voters living in this country that don’t or can’t get “cable” or something comparable and the demographic that depends on “free” isn’t going to get the message just broadcast on “cable” and AM radio. One of these “network” Democrat organizations needs to “fall” and be reborn in the image of what the Founders intended. That will take a very long time at the current ratings drop.

Conservative can’t continue to give up most of the field of play in the market place of ideas by letting the “networks” have free reign over that market.

Paul Nelson| 9.22.10 @ 10:11PM

that would be rein, as in letting go of a horse's rein.

Joanna | 6.6.11 @ 6:13AM

The time is definitely right for change.
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