I am sick of the way that so-called "honest" news sources continue to cloud popular opinion with misinformation. How hard is it to accurately and fairly report news? Dishonest, inaccurate news has always bothered me, but last week's news coverage was so far off the mark, so incredibly inaccurate, that I was compelled to write about it.

Making my usual trawl of news stories, I came across the following tidbit from the front page of CNN. The article was titled, "Polish leader: WMD never existed" but I could not find a direct quote within the article making any such claim. In fact, the Polish leader in question seemed quite satisfied with his participation in Iraq. I mentioned this to a friend of mine who directed me to the Polish Embassy's website. Right there on the front page, it said:

"Statement of the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland

Due to misinterpretations pertaining to the President’s remarks given during his meeting with the press on March 18, 2004, the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland has been authorized to issue the following:

1. The essence of the President’s message in his remarks to the press on March 18, 2004 has been a restated presentation of reasons and purposes of Polish involvement in the process of stabilization and democratization of Iraq. "Iraq today, without Saddam Hussein is truly a better Iraq than with Saddam Hussein" the President said. He also warned of political decisions, which would lead to destabilization of the situation in Iraq. Poland will not withdraw from Iraq until the mission of stabilization is successfully accomplished and counts on effective cooperation with the United States, Great Britain, Spain and other NATO and UN member states.

2. The President of the Republic of Poland reminded that Saddam Hussein misled the world in believing that he had had the weapons of mass destruction and might use them. This was the essential reason to take up the mission in Iraq within a common strategy of a multinational coalition in the war on terrorism.

3. The President of the Republic of Poland stated that a decisive factor in fighting terrorism is to maintain unity and solidarity by democratic states. Demonstration of weakness in the face of terrorist attacks aims at the foundations of democracy and security of all nations and world peace."

These direct statements from the Polish embassy are a FAR cry from CNN's claim that WMDs never existed, or Japan Today's claim that Poland was considering early withdrawal of troops from Iraq. Despite the Poland Embassy's efforts, all weekend I was pelted by claims from a variety of news outlets that Poland was thinking of withdrawing troops. Maybe I am missing the point. Maybe the complexities of international diplomacy are lost on me. Maybe the Polish leader's non-remarks were really a remark unto themselves and these statements on their website is a quick recant (and acknowledgement) of the non-comments. Maybe the press is doing me a favor by interpreting these goings on into simple phrases like "WMDs never existed" and "polish troop withdrawal." But I doubt it.