Battle Over Death Toll in Afghan Village Airstrike

The New York Times has a reputation for being a reliable source for news however, like anything else, mistakes will be made.  One thing that bothered me recently about the New York Times was because of two different articles, written on two separate days by two different journalists, about the same event.

Wednesday August 27, 2008, on page six of the New York Times, there was an article entitled "U.S. Killed 90 in Afghan Village, Including 60 children, U.N. Finds".  This article caught my attention and I read in detail about the blunders made by the United States military in the last week and all the findings of the U.N. to support such claim.  However disturbing, this article was turned into a joke the following day, Thursday August 28, 2008, when another article, this time on page twelve, came out entitled "U.S. Officials describe Afghan Airstrike".  This article, about the same events from the previous day had something very different to say.  This article, instead of being U.N. findings, was a description of the events through a United States military standpoint and completely negated the article from the day before.  This article described the attack as a successful one that killed at most four civilians.  These numbers are so far off from the previous day's that this became almost more disturbing than the article itself.  Leaves me to wonder what information can really be trusted.