airsoft soldier

Airsoft players. Source: Wikipedia.

And he just walked along, alone,
With his guilt so well concealed,
And muttered underneath his breath,
“Nothing is revealed.”
– Bob Dylan, “The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest”

Noticias24 » Los ‘paramilitares’ de Mandinga son jugadores de Airsoft: “The paramilitaries of Mandinga were weekend paintball warriors!”

I am following up on Anti-Bolivarian Contras? Anatomy of a Scoop d’Etat, in case you are lost.

Un grupo de paramilitares venezolanos, colombianos y estadounidenses fueron detectados mientras entrenaban en un campo de instrucción en Charallave. Así abre hoy su portada el semanario “Los Papeles de Mandinga” el cual efectúa la denuncia y publica un amplio reportaje (con múltiples fotografías) del grupo. Sin embargo, como muestra el testimonio de diversos lectores de Noticias24 (incluso de alguno de los “supuestos” terroristas) se trata sólo de un grupo de practicantes del Airsoft, un nuevo deporte que causa furor. Entérese de esta rocambolesca historia.

A group of Venezuelan, Colombian and U.S. paramilitaries were detected while training at a facility in Charallave, Venezuela. That’s what the [Mandinga Papers] daily reports today in an ample report (with multiple photos) on the group. However, as a number of [News24] readers note (including some of the supposed “terrorists”) this is merely a group of players of Airsoft, a new sport that is becoming all the rage. Check out this whole crazy story.

That’s the entire extent of N24’s refutation of the story.

But what are the names of the players who wrote in to refute it?

What did News24 do to corroborate their stories?

This could very well be true, of course.

But this report — an exercise in “citizen journalism” — certainly does not lay the matter to rest.

Why? Because it breaks a basic rule of Journalism 1.0: Consider the source.

anonymous sources Use anonymous attribution only when essential and even then provide the most specific possible identification of the source. Simply quoting “a source,” unmodified, is almost always prohibited.

The story remains clouded in FUD.

Screenshot from Left Behind: Eternal Forces. Oh, come all ye faithful! Joyful and triumphant! Grand Theft Auto meets the Prince of Peace in the battle for Life 2.0.

Airsoft is a combat simulation game.

Than again, combat training takes the form of combat simulation.

Obviously, soldiers do not kill the Red Team during training.

They simulate killing the Red Team.

So what is the difference between paramilitary training and “war games”?

Depends on who is doing the training, I guess. And why. And who signs their paychecks.

So we still know precisely nothing.

Likewise, N24 does not refute the substance of the editorial it reproduces in facsimile on its Web site. The editorial does make some factual assertions, as undeniably tendentious as it is.

Next step, then now that we have read the noise-machine coverage of it — none of which has committed a recognizable act of Journalism 1.0 yet — here’s what we do: Try to fact-check the underlying report in question.

Does the Mandinga paper really make the case that the players shown here are U.S.-sponsored Contras — some of them Colombian narcoparamilitaries — preparing for war?

Or all they all dentists and stockbrokers with a shared passion for Chuck Norris movies, playing for beer?

It all depends on who they are.

So what are their names?

Who signs their paychecks?

Does the Mandinga paper answer those questions?

Short answer: No. It does not identify the “terrorists” pictured, say where they were photographed, or reproduce statements from them about what they are doing and why. Itmerely identifies some of the persons pictured as U.S. citizens.

It should do that.

It does mention some cases to check up on, though, such as alleged paramilitary training being given to employees of Venezuelan firms.

Specifically mentioned are Almacenes Éxito and Colanta, a dairy products distributor.

So it appears we are being barraged and massaged by dueling noise machines here.

Does the Mandinga paper have any solid reporting on this subject? To be fair, it does refer to an “investigative series” of which this editorial purports to be sort of a closing statement.

So let’s have a look at that whole series, shall we?

But another time.

Still, if I were hired tomorrow as a Dick Morris- or Rob Allyn-style Bolivarian media consultant — no, you cannot pay me in cheese produced by the Bolivarian worker’s collective! I need krugerrands! or better, petroeuro futures contracts with an option for UAE dinars! — I would counsel them that fighting noise machines with noise machines is a self-defeating proposition.

Hired by the U.S. Dept. of State’s “blogging for democracy” infowar project — where Paul Wolfowitz’s girlfriend and other Moonies work, I gather — I would tell them the exact same freaking thing.

Because I still think abandoning the standards of journalistic quality at Voice of America — “Sergei, can you believe those Americans can actually write bad things about Nixon, even in their politburo propaganda broadcasts? It must be a paradise of democracy there!” — was an epoch-making act of bovine stupidity by the Karen “den mother to the great unwashed” Hughes cabal and the rest of the Bush ibn Bush flackocracy.

And a lot of those retired infowarriors over at the USC public diplomacy project agree with me, I happen to know.

In the meantime, I’m going to the park to blog via WiMax.

On Colombia paramilitaries reportedly — reported by a credible non-Bolivarian non-scandal non-rag, mind you — operating in Venezuelan territory, see also Black Eagles: Colombian Paras in Hugoland?.