I took a look at the Drudge report today and got a big splash of 14 MURDERS IN ACAPULCO in the face.
Really?
The only line that referenced Acapulco in the linked article was the following: "Fourteen drug-related slayings were reported on Friday in different locations in the Pacific beach resort of Acapulco, popular with U.S. tourists but also a key transit point for narcotics. Several of the bound and blindfolded victims were covered with messages threatening rival cartels." (Read the full Drudge linked article below).
As it turns out, only two of those murders took place in Acapulco. I think if someone gets shot anywhere between here and Durango, they'll blame it on Acapulco.
Or consider the title of this article about on the same subject: 15 Slain in Acapulco, Mexico
I guess Drudge missed this one (or maybe it provided too much information). At least this one refuted itself for those that bothered to read on. The relevant quotes:
"Acting on an anonymous telephone tip, police discovered the bodies of six men along the highway linking Acapulco with Mexico City." -6
"Two other men were found dead on the Acapulco-Zihuatanejo road. Those bodies were also bound hand-and-foot and accompanied by messages." - 2
"Four shooting victims were discovered later Friday at a toll booth on one of the main routes leading into Acapulco, likewise with messages from the killers." -4
"That was also the story with two men found fatally shot in the parking lot of a department store in the resort city." + 2
"The body of the 15th victim was left alongside the federal highway connecting Chilpancingo, the state capital, and the town of Tierra Colorada." - 1
(See full article below).
So, that's 2 people killed in Acapulco and 13 killed as far away from Acapulco as Chilpancingo or Tierra Colorada. Give me a break.
The U.S. media seems to just love the storyline "Mexico Drug War Comes to Popular Tourist Resort". There are problems in Acapulco these days surely, but come on. I understand that putting things in context is asking way too much, but if they run a title on their front page like "14 Murders in Acapulco" the murders had damn well better be IN Acapulco.
To add a little context I went to Google's news search and entered the keywords "los angeles shootings" and got this: http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local/los_angeles&id=7636256 "Detectives said robbery may have been a motive in the deadly shooting of three men in West Hollywood."
And this: http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/08/28/road-rage-shooting-leaves-man-dead/ "Road-rage shooting leaves man dead".
And this: http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-arlington-shootings,0,3428983.story "Gunmen Open Fire Along L.A. Street, 3 Wounded".
By my count that is 4 confirmed fatal shootings, with an additional person in critical condition and two in serious condition over the same time period in L.A. I didn't even bother to look for stabbings, strangulations, or how many people were pushed in front of moving buses, L.A. won the day with shootings alone.
What's more, in L.A. the victims seem to have been everyday folks, I can almost guarantee that all 15 of the reported shootings "in Acapulco" were among narcos and their associates.
I think if Mexico were to run headlines like "Hollywood on the Brink of Chaos" "Is the U.S. Ungovernable?" "More Murders in LA!" and of course "Is it Safe to Go to the U.S.? More Mexicans Decide to Stay Home", Americans would be both puzzled and offended. But that is the exact treatment that Mexico, and Acapulco in particular, is receiving. The sort of reporting that I've cited here goes beyond the typical distortions and stretching of the truth that is the norm for Drudge-style journalism into the realm of downright lies. If Acapulco were a person, she would be able to sue for libel.
So, more cheering news from the U.S., ... and it's been raining non-stop. Whatever the mafias are doing to one another... at this point in time, Acapulco is still a great place to live, regardless of what hypsters like Matt Drudge have to say.
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Drudge Headline: 14 Murders in Acapulco
Linked to: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100827/ts_nm/us_mexico_drugs
Headline of linked article: Two car bombs explode in northern Mexico; no casualties
Fri Aug 27, 4:40 pm ET
CIUDAD VICTORIA, Mexico (Reuters) – Two car bombs exploded in northern Mexico early on Friday, days after marines found the bodies of 72 people gunned down in the country's escalating war with powerful drug cartels.
The blasts, the second and third modest-sized bombs planted in a vehicle this month in Ciudad Victoria, the capital of the northern Gulf state of Tamaulipas, and the fourth in Mexico since late July, caused no casualties but damaged buildings.
The attacks came the same day officials discovered the body of a police officer investigating the massacre of dozens of migrants in the latest attack linked to Mexico's drug war.
"I'm told of the explosion of two car bombs here in the state, one in the offices of local traffic police and the other in the installations of Televisa," Tamaulipas Governor Eugenio Hernandez told local radio, referring to Mexico's top broadcaster.
The explosion on the street outside Televisa's studios in Ciudad Victoria, located 220 miles south of the Texas border, apparently part of a growing campaign of intimidation of the media, left little more than the car's engine and front chassis.
Televisa did not give details of the blast, and it was unclear what explosives were used or how the two bombs were detonated. No group was immediately blamed for the explosion.
Car bombs are a new weapon in Mexico's drug war. So far, the devices appear to have been relatively unsophisticated and have not caused widespread destruction.
Four people were killed in July in the violent city of Ciudad Juarez by a bomb planted in a car, the first such attack since President Felipe Calderon took office.
More than 28,000 people have died in drug violence since Calderon launched his war on drugs in late 2006.
Fourteen drug-related slayings were reported on Friday in different locations in the Pacific beach resort of Acapulco, popular with U.S. tourists but also a key transit point for narcotics. Several of the bound and blindfolded victims were covered with messages threatening rival cartels.
MEDIA IN CROSS-HAIRS
As gruesome attacks become more common, Calderon is seeking to convince civic leaders, businessmen and opposition politicians his war is making headway.
"The paradox is that in other areas there can be advances ... in improving the economy, in social policy, but while this matter keeps weighing heavily on the daily life of ordinary people the country will not move forward as much as it should with its enormous potential," Calderon said at a security forum in Mexico City.
The explosion at Televisa was at least the fourth apparent attack on its studios in northern Mexico since last year, when drug hitmen threw a grenade at its studios in Mexico's business capital, Monterrey. Grenades were also thrown at Televisa in Monterrey and Matamoros across from Brownsville, Texas, earlier this month, police said. No one was hurt in the attacks.
"They want to sow terror in society and they are going for symbols. Televisa has a big presence at a local level in this region," said Alberto Islas, an independent security analyst with crisis management firm Risk Evaluation. "The attack is not against the company but against freedom of expression."
At least 30 journalists have been killed in Mexico since 2006, according to Mexican media. The country is among the world's most dangerous for reporters, the U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists says.
INVESTIGATOR KILLED
Tamaulipas state has become one of Mexico's bloodiest drug flashpoints since the start of the year as rival hitmen from the Gulf cartel and its former armed wing, the Zetas, fight over smuggling routes into the United States.
Gunmen murdered a popular candidate for state governor in June in Mexico's worst political killing in 16 years.
The car bombs come after the bodies of 72 people were found on Tuesday at a ranch about 100 miles from Ciudad Victoria, the worst massacre since Calderon sent 45,000 troops and thousands of federal police to fight cartels in late 2006.
The victims, believed to be trying to make their way into the United States from Central and South America, appeared to have been blindfolded and bound before being shot. A military source in Tamaulipas said the Zetas were behind the killings.
Two senior police officers who were investigating the massacre were abducted on Thursday and the body of one of them was dumped on a rural road on Friday, El Universal daily said.
(Reporting by Reuters newsroom in Ciudad Victoria; additional reporting by Miguel Angel Gutierrez and Cyntia Barrera in Mexico City; Writing by Robin Emmott and Robert Campbell; editing by Todd Eastham)
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15 Slain in Acapulco, Mexico
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=364572&CategoryId=14091
MEXICO CITY – Fifteen people were found shot to death Friday in and around the Pacific coast resort town of Acapulco, authorities in the southern state of Guerrero said.
Acting on an anonymous telephone tip, police discovered the bodies of six men along the highway linking Acapulco with Mexico City.
The victims’ hands and feet were tied and their eyes covered with duct tape, Guerrero police said, and beside the bodies were messages from the killers to rival criminal groups.
Authorities declined to reveal the content of the messages.
Two other men were found dead on the Acapulco-Zihuatanejo road. Those bodies were also bound hand-and-foot and accompanied by messages.
Four shooting victims were discovered later Friday at a toll booth on one of the main routes leading into Acapulco, likewise with messages from the killers.
That was also the story with two men found fatally shot in the parking lot of a department store in the resort city.
The body of the 15th victim was left alongside the federal highway connecting Chilpancingo, the state capital, and the town of Tierra Colorada.
Guerrero and the neighboring state of Morelos are suffering the effects of a turf war between the rival drug cartels led by Edgar Valdes Villarreal, alias “La Barbie,” and Hector Beltran Leyva.
Authorities suggest Hector is struggling to establish full control over the cartel after brother Arturo Beltran Leyva – the organization’s founder – was killed last December in a shootout with marines.
Conflicts among drug cartels and between criminals and the security forces are blamed for more than 28,000 deaths in Mexico since December 2006, when newly inaugurated President Felipe Calderon gave the military the leading role in battling organized crime. EFE
