Friday, March 11, 2005; 1:36 PM
U.S. troops near Baghdad fired on a car Friday night carrying an Italian journalist who had just been freed after a month in captivity, wounding her and another passenger and killing an Italian military intelligence officer, according to Italian and U.S. officials.
Right-wing bloggers immediately demanded the resignations of the heads of all major wire services and the three U.S. broadcast news networks for reporting the incident, which they said reflected poorly on the U.S. military.
"These are nothing more than vicious, cowardly attacks on our heroic warriors for freedom in Iraq," said conservative blogger Michelle Malkin. "The American people need to be protected from such defeatist nonsense." Malkin called for a far-reaching congressional investigation into the loyalty of the "so-called mainstream media."
"Even if the commie slut did get shot, it was no more than she deserved for faking her own kidnapping," added the conservative blog Jawa Report. Meanwhile, commenters on the popular right-wing chat site Little Green Footballs demanded an all-out nuclear attack on Rome to end the scattered anti-American demonstrations that have been held there since the shooting.
"Regretfully, I must agree," added conservative blogger Glenn Reynolds, owner of the popular Instapundit site.
© 2005 The Associated Press
