3,000 antiquities looted


Howard Kurtz, in his WashingtonPost.com column, today calls the media to account for its deception about the 170,000 antiquities stolen from the Iraq National Museum, saying that "The actual number: 33. Yes, some of the booty was later returned, but 169,967 items? Maybe Don Rumsfeld was right that TV kept showing the same vase being carried away over and over."

Actually, Kurtz is wrong. 170,000 pieces weren't stolen. 3,000 were. The 33 that Kurtz cites is the number stolen from the "... 8,000 or so exhibit-quality, world-class pieces of jewelry, statues and cuneiform clay tablets." He cites the same article, All Along, Most Iraqi Relics Were 'Safe and Sound' that mentions the 3,000, yet doesn't mention this number at all, preferring to say "Only 33" were stolen. He then uses this as an opportunity to link to Andrew Sullivan and his blood feud with the New York Times.

This is the sort of sloppiness Howard Kurtz is supposed to be looking for and reporting on. Instead, he indulges in it himself. Bad critic, bad bad critic.

Oh, and does this mean that the Sippar Library has been found as well? That would make Mrs. Datanerd happy. But the Iraqi National Library is still completely missing, burned, or looted, so I don't have a whole lot of hope.

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