How The Media Lost In Basra

Via Glenn, Ed Morissey notes that dextrospheric doubts about the Basra reporting have now been thoroughly vindicated.

Residents say the streets have been cleared of gunmen, markets have reopened, basic services have been resumed and a measure of normality has returned to the oil-rich city.

The port of Umm Qasr is in the hands of the Iraqi forces who wrested control of the facility from Shiite militiamen, and according to the British military it is operational once again.

It seems like only yesterday we were hearing how Sadr had stopped the ISF’s advance and was gaining power from the confrontation.  Oh wait — it was only yesterday:

 Tue Apr 15, 5:05 PM ET

 Sadr’s Mahdi Army has effectively stopped an advance by U.S. and Iraqi forces
…
Sadr’s political power appears to be growing even as the crisis wears on.

Right.   Never mind that they’ve driven Sadr’s goons from Basra’s streets and several other smaller cities in the south, and taken mortar positions in Sadr City.  Never mind that every political faction has lined up behind Maliki against Sadr.  Never mind that al-Sistani, Iraq’s senior cleric and the most respected Shia in Iraq, has said the militias must follow the law.  Never mind that all the political parties seem to agree the Sadrists should be banned from elections if they don’t disband their militias.

Roggio reports:

Iraqi troops have cleared the Qiblah in the southwestern portion of the city and the Taymiyyah neighborhood in central Basrah, while the Mahdi Army strongholds of Hayaniyah, Khamsamile, and Garma in the northwest “are now encircled by Iraqi troops who are carrying out door-to-door searches,” according to AFP.

Apparently ”stopped [the] advance” means the Iraqi Army has stopped by the Sadrists’ houses for tea and delivery of numerous pairs of shiny bracelets.

Amazingly, TIME’s earlier reporting was even worse.  This article, appropriately published on April Fools’ Day, claims Moqtada Al-Sadr actually won in Basra:

 How Moqtada al-Sadr Won in Basra 

The Iraqi military’s offensive in Basra was supposed to demonstrate the power of the central government in Baghdad. Instead it has proven the continuing relevance of anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

Catch that?  The bar for Sadr is set at “relevant.”  Not defeating the Iraqi security forces militarily, not holding his ground, not pushing Iraqi Army forces out of Basra, Kut, Umm Qasr and Kerbala, not getting any political support from other Iraqi parties, just being ”relevant.”

 Sadr’s militia, the Mahdi Army, stood its ground in several days of heavy fighting with Iraqi soldiers backed up by American and British air power

Given that we’ve already been told Sadr “won,” the bar for Iraqi security forces is apparently set at “instantaneous absolute annihilation of all Sadrists everywhere in Iraq or Iran.”

How did the media lose in Basra?  Ed nails it:

Once again, the American media got caught with its pants down and their, er, aspirations showing.