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Some bona fide journalists who also happen to blog are nuking Newsweek for its massive error in facts concerning its story that American interrogators at Guantanamo had flushed the Quran down the toilet to get Muslim detainees to talk. The story was false, but when it spread to Afghanistan, it sparked widespread rioting that killed 15 people.
I won’t try to play catch-up with the rest of the ’sphere, so I urge you to read Austin Bay’s devastating analysis and also Joe Gandelman’s. Both are journalists in the tradition sense. Lots of links at Michelle Malkin’s site. Belmont Club has a lot to say.
Any way you cut it, Newsweak displayed a reckless disregard for the truth - but institutionally, they wanted to believe the report.
But remember - journalists are “accountable,” aren’t they?
Update: Now Newsweak has definitively retracted the story.
Doug Payton says that, “The “Newsweek” article debacle has put the Left in the rather strange position of defending irresponsible journalism that gets people killed.”
Chuck Simmins ties together the Newsweek debacle to the Spanish American War, Watergate and Valerie Plame. Whew!
Comments policy, read and heed!
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May 16th, 2005 at 8:44 am
Some detainees complained of religious humiliation, saying guards had defaced their copies of the Koran and, in one case, had thrown it in a toilet, said [attorney] Kristine Huskey, who interviewed clients late last month.
Philadelphia Inquirer, January 20, 2005.
May 16th, 2005 at 9:31 am
I haven’t yet seen any real accountability for journalists, certainly not within their own organizations. Instead, it has become the role of the blogosphere, it seems, to consistently and reliably fact-check these stories, then reveal any untruths, inconsistencies, or inadequacies (not to mention outright lies) to the general public, usually via talk-radio. It is sad that the institutional bias these publications have is so blatant, and even more pathetic that their ability to fact-check does not even run to something as simple as a “Google” search.
May 16th, 2005 at 10:26 am
Journalism, where war is concerned, has always had a degree of propagandizing to cause mistrust, inflame the masses, and to develop hatred. It used to be directed, however, from one side versus the other.
Here, and with other reports - Dan Rather’s for example - American journalism seems to be very happy to inflict this kind of stuff against our own military with toatal disregard as to how many American lives might be lost and any other consequences.
Newsweek is doing its best to point the finger elsewhere showing once again how far down the dirt trail journalism has traveled. Selling its own magazine is Newsweek’s goal… at any cost.
May 16th, 2005 at 11:08 am
Here is the cover of Newsweek that explains what is happening there:
http://www.juggernuts.com/comments.php?id=3534_0_1_0_C
Yes, shameless self-promotion, but it’s worth a look cuz it is scathing…
Cheers! -Yarbz
May 16th, 2005 at 11:31 am
Newsweek’s Deadly Mistake
Nashville bloggers are abuzz about the massive mistake made by Newsweek. If you haven’t heard Newsweek reported that U.S. interrogators at Guantanamo Bay flushed a copy of the Qur’an down a toilet in efforts to get prisoners to speak. This…
May 16th, 2005 at 1:35 pm
“They wanted to believe the report” seems a little harsh to me. I think this case underscores a weakness in the weekly “magazine” format. The pressure is that much greater to release a story when the next best option is to wait a week. Plus, the way Newsweek (and 60 minutes) appears to confirm a story is to give a “heads up” to the goverment and wait to see if there is an objection in time to stop the story. Silence can be full of many meanings.
May 16th, 2005 at 6:22 pm
TO: Donald Sensing
RE: Newsweek, Ain’t Got No Soul
And therein lies the root of the problem. Those people have no soul. Or, if they do, they’ve sold it to the corporation.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
May 16th, 2005 at 10:39 pm
[…] hurt if, at least during wartime, they were restrained by some sense of patriotism. As I said, insitutionally, Newsweek wanted to believe the story that American interrogators had flushed the Quran […]
May 17th, 2005 at 1:42 pm
[…] blished a falsely very thinly supported “supported” story about Quran flushing is because “institutionally, they wanted to believe the report.” Today a lead editorial of the […]
May 17th, 2005 at 6:02 pm
TO: All
RE: Tell Them Yourself
If you want to give Newsweek an
eareyeful, write them at [email protected].Interestingly enough, I noticed that when I tried the URL of www. newsweek.com, I was taken to MSNBC.
I guess that figures. I think of Microsoft as I do of Pepsi (see item up the hallway from here). [Note: Which reminds me. Another reason I despise Pepsi; Scully.]
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[Always ther REAL thing….]