Why can't major media get their facts right?

Afghanistan and Pakistan--letters to the editor, not published:

1) NY Times:

What American invasion of Afghanistan?

A front page story October 11 ("A Dogged Taliban Chief Rebounds, Vexing U.S.") starts thus:

"In late 2001, Mullah Muhammad Omar’s prospects seemed utterly bleak. The ill-educated, one-eyed leader of the Taliban had fled on a motorbike after his fighters were swiftly routed by the Americans invading Afghanistan."

Then one finds this in an article ("The Real Peace Prize Will Be Elusive") in the "Week in Review" by a reporter who was actually in Afghanistan when the Taliban regime fell, and for some time afterwards:

"The Americans tried to accomplish what the British and Soviets failed to do, by using a different way of warfare, one with few American troops on the ground while supporting the Northern Alliance largely from the air. There were so few American soldiers in Afghanistan that we never ran into one for the first six months we were there."

So where were all those Americans invading the country? The answer is simple. The U.S. did not in fact invade Afghanistan in any meaningful sense of the word (unlike the Soviet invasion in 1979, or indeed the American invasion of Iraq in 2003). One wonders why the invasion myth is constantly repeated. Especially when the events are only eight years old and were covered widely, in print and on television, at the time.

2) Ottawa Sun:

Taliban in Pakistan are indeed Taliban

Eric Margolis writes ("What lies beneath the war in Afghanistan", Oct. 11) that the insurgents--who are also terrorists, note their suicide bombings of civilians--the Government of Pakistan is fighting are 'wrongly called "Taliban."' I guess Mr. Margolis has somehow managed to avoid noticing that the umbrella group for these people is called "Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan" (the Taliban Movement of Pakistan).

Seems pretty clear to me who they are; but then there are none so blind as those who will not see.

References:

http://www.janes.com/news/security/terrorism/jtsm/jtsm080212_1_n.shtml
"As the most powerful militant commander in Pakistan's tribal areas, Baitullah was an obvious choice to head a new coalition of pro-Taliban groups. The formation of the Taliban Movement of Pakistan (Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan: TTP) was announced on 14 December 2007 from groups of all seven of the Pakistan's tribal agencies, as well as several districts of the North West Frontier Province."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-pakistan-bombing10-2009oct10,0,1045205.story?track=rss
"Bomb kills 49 at Pakistani market
Officials believe the attack is the Taliban's latest response to plans for a military offensive in mountain enclaves."

More on Mr Margolis.