From the Associated Press.

Just for fun, compare how the story is treated by Reuters, which has demonstrated a severe case of "BBC Syndrome" through the whole war

In the end, Army investigators concluded that Lynch was injured when her Humvee crashed into another vehicle in the convoy after it was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade.

The U.S. military also released video taken during what was portrayed as a daring rescue by American special forces who raided the Iraqi hospital where she was being treated. Iraqi doctors at the hospital said later the U.S. rescuers had faced no resistance and the operation had been over-dramatized.

Lynch herself has been quoted as saying she can remember nothing of the ambush or the rescue, and her remarks on Tuesday shed no new light on the episode.

"The failure here was that the news media got to thinking the government could be trusted to reflect reality," said Carolyn Marvin, professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication.

"It no longer matters in America whether something is true or false. The population has been conditioned to accept anything: sentimental stories, lies, atomic bomb threats," said John MacArthur, the publisher of Harper's magazine.

A spokesman for U.S. Central Command in Florida had no comment when asked about assertions that the heroism tale was seen by some critics as government propaganda.

The Washington Post, the first to report the heroic version of Lynch's capture, came under sharp criticism from its own ombudsman for its handling of a story that contained information which was "wrong in its most compelling aspects."