The big media outlets generally don't know and don't care that a blogger, did what they could not, discover a fraudulent photo that made its way on to the front pages of US big media outlets - the mainstream media.
They sometimes do know where the scoops come from - and then refuse to give them due credit. To admit that a blogger, a pajama clad blogger no less, scooped them shows that the journalist business isn't as tough as the so called experts want you to believe.
Some don't have the time to care where the original source came from and simply use reports from others - which is how this mess got spread around the world in hours and picked up on the front pages of major US newspapers (again, big media/MSM/western media).
This mess wasn't confined to AFP affiliated sites, or Middle Eastern outlets, but the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, and many others, who prominently featured it on their front pages or websites.
And Charles Johnson of LGF figured it out yesterday well before the NYT got on the story. And the original photo surfaced - clearly showing that the one that got sent around was bogus.
Of course, there's still the not insignificant problem of what this says about the Iranian intentions - they still want missiles to go boom over their enemies, want to minimize their failures (perhaps for domestic consumption), and possibly even for foreign consumption (get people misjudging the quality and quantity of Iranian capabilities).
The Iranians have missiles. They have long range missiles. They have an intention to use them. They want nuclear weapons. They have a nuclear program that they refuse to openly report. It's expected that they may have a nuclear weapon in as little as six months.
I'd say that this remains a deadly serious situation, even if the commenters at the NYT and BBC and elsewhere think that this is all part of a Bush-conspiracy to go to war with Iran.
UPDATE:
Former Spook has similar thoughts and expands on the themes I wrote about.
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