Can't Report Good News From Iraq So Lets Make Up Some Bad

Well, well, well, it seems a story about an AQ massacre attack on a small Shia village as reported by the MSM never happened, Ace of Spades has the story.
Meanwhile Mike Totten and Mike Yon are reporting from the ground in Iraq. Totten is in Fallujah with another outstanding dispatch.

“I don't think people really know what to expect from any of this,” he continued. “It's like people say: you only get the bad news on TV. They don't get to hear about how Fallujah is doing good now. I'm sure they'd hear about it if something bad happened. But these people are doing better, the schools are open, businesses are open, people are cleaning up their own city. They're starting their own neighborhood watch. They have their own police force now, their own government. People don't get to hear about that. I think that's important for people to know. You shouldn't focus so much on people who mess up. I mean, people have messed up. Bad stuff has happened. But you should focus on the percentage of people who are doing good as opposed to the percentage who are doing bad. There's a lot of good going on over here. And there's a lot of good people in this city.”

Yon is in Baghdad writing about a previous embed with the Brits in Basra when the fighting was still hot but sends along this report from Doura by LTC Jim Crider.

For the past few days we have hosted media embeds from the New York Times and the USA Today. We also brought down Iraqi television recently to show them the progress we have made in Doura. When I met the Iraqi reporter in the Green Zone he was visibly nervous and asked if we had any active snipers in the neighborhoods where we planned to travel. Not surprisingly, he was by himself as his partner failed to show likely out of fear. We reassured him as he admitted that he had not been to Doura since before the war. Once we arrived he saw the streets full of families, vegetable markets, new sidewalks, remodeled schools, parks, and some very nice murals on the walls. As it turned out, we could hardly keep up with him as he interviewed over twenty people on the street and in their cars about the situation. This is important in our current strategy as we spread the news even within the city of Baghdad about real progress. In the past, the Iraqi Government has used security as an excuse for inactivity so the media can help remove that misconception.