Is there a Jamil Hussein? Who Cares?

On Friday November 24th the AP ran a story about six sunnis being covered with kerosene and burned alive by shiites as they were leaving a mosque in Baghdad. The AP cited Jamil Hussein as their source for the story. He's been cited on other stories as well. But then the Iraqis denied his existence. Bloggers, all over the blogosphere, have questioned his existence. Look at Townhall for starters but Technoratti says that Jamil Hussein is one of the most frequent searched terms and there are are plenty of blogs that pop up on their site. Who was the AP using as their sources? Yesterday, the Iraqi government confirmed his existence. This AP article will shed more light on Hussein.

So, what's the point of this story for education. Can we trust newspaper articles? Since Jamil Hussein appears to exist, the easy answer might be yes. But, wait a second. There were other articles that denied his existence. We should be teaching our students to remain skeptical and look for multiple sources of information. We can certainly teach them to do this on the Internet. We've got bloggers like Michelle Malkin who inundate the blogosphere with minute details so that people can stay up on the news. But don't trust everything she says, don't trust everything that anybody says. TRIANGULATE!!!

Jamil Hussein