AS THE POTEMKIN VILLAGE BURNS:

Iraq expels some foreign journalists, reportedly annoyed at stories about demonstration (DAVID BAUDER, Oct 24, 2002, Associated Press)

Iraq is expelling some foreign journalists and warning of restrictive new rules for getting back into the country, news organizations said Thursday. [...]

Iraqi officials claimed CNN fabricated a report that government authorities had fired one or more guns into the air to disperse demonstrators earlier this week. [Eason Jordan, CNN president of newsgathering] said CNN had footage of the gunplay.

The Iraqi government is also upset that CNN has stationed a news team in the northern part of the country, which is not controlled by Saddam Hussein, he said.

Funny how quickly you can lose control of a story you're trying to stage manage. Now if only the press would play this up the way they did the "election" last week. Posted by Orrin Judd at October 24, 2002 7:41 PM