US papers offered suspect 'freelance' Iraq war stories

A former White House spokesman, Taylor Gross, offered four newspapers supposedly objective freelance stories from Iraq that were, in fact, written by members of a pro-war group linked to the Republican party. The Buffalo News says that Gross suggested that the paper should hire two correspondents who could "offer balanced and credible viewpoints gained directly from those closest to and most affected by the Iraq war." It turned out that the pair are leaders of Vets for Freedom, a group whose blog www.vetsforfreedom.org paints a positive picture of the war effort. No paper accepted Gross's offer. (Via buffalonews.com)