Most people don't read all the way to the bottom of Internet news reports, as anything after the first few paragraphs is usually a re—hashing of information given in previous articles on their respective topics.

However, yesterday I happened to read all the way to the bottom of a Yahoo—Reuters article on the U.N. Security Council's plans for a mission to Afghanistan.

To my great surprise, in the third to last paragraph, I found Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf referred to as "Perez Mascara", and Afghan president Hamid Karzai referred to as "Humid Kara".

I kid you not.

Whether a joke by some childish employee or a deliberate jab by a writer with an agenda, this serves as a reminder of Reuters' poor journalistic standards.  If we can't even trust them to get the names of heads of state right, why should we trust such sloppy journalists to give us the correct information on, say, the North Korean nuclear test, the Iraq war, or the Foley scandal?
 
P.N.C.   10 10 06

Editor's comment:

I am no friend of Reuters, but I am inclined to allow some slack on this. It sounds very much like somebody ran a spell—check and didn't watch too closely. If the error were ideologically slanted, I would be more attentive and critical.

We discovered in the course of covering the fake photos that Reuters has outsourced a lot of editing functions to Asia. I always imagine a young person in India when I think of a Reuters editor.

Thomas Lifson   10 10 06