The Deadly Irresponsibility of Newsweek Magazine

[onedomino]

Newsweek magazine, home of unnamed sources, admits its outrageous irresponsibility in connection to the Koran toilet flushing story:

May 15, 2005
Newsweek Says Koran Report Might Have Been Wrong
By REUTERS

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/15/international/asia/15cnd-afghan.html?hp&ex=1116216000&en=c35729128bc1194e&ei=5094&partner=homepage

WASHINGTON, May 15 - Newsweek magazine on Sunday said it may have erred in a May 9 report that said U.S. interrogators desecrated the Koran at Guantanamo Bay, and apologized to victims of deadly violence sparked by the article. (No doubt this makes it ok for Newsweek to continue use uncorroborated and unnamed sources for political effect and to sell more magazines.)

The weekly news magazine said in its May 23 edition that the original source of the allegation was not sure where he saw the assertion that at least one copy of the Koran was flushed down a toilet in an attempt to get detainees to talk.

"We regret that we got any part of our story wrong, and extend our sympathies to victims of the violence and to the U.S. soldiers caught in its midst," Editor Mark Whitaker wrote in the magazine's latest issue, due to appear on U.S. newsstands on Monday.

The report has sparked angry and violent protests across the Muslim world from Afghanistan, where 16 were killed and more than 100 injured, to Pakistan to Indonesia to Gaza.

On Sunday, Afghan Muslim clerics threatened to call for a holy war (Islam, the religion of peace) against the United States in three days unless it handed over the interrogators in question.

The May 9 report quoted unnamed sources as saying that military investigators probing abuse at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, found that interrogators had placed copies of the Koran on toilets and "in at least one case, flushed a holy book down the toilet."

Newsweek said a Pentagon spokesman told the magazine late last week that the story was wrong and that the military has found no credible evidence to support separate allegations of Koran desecration made by released detainees. (Somehow the radical Islamic fundamentalists are ignoring this part of the story.)

The U.S. military opened an investigation into the charges while top U.S. officials urged Muslims to resist calls for violence, stating disrespect for the holy book would not be tolerated.

 

[freeandfun1]

Does Newsweek understand where a story like this could lead? Even if the story were true, did they really think that publishing the piece would be wise? What were they hoping to gain? A bombing in NYC? Are they THAT ignorant or are they just trying to make things worse?

Another example of the LIBERAL press putting PROFITS ahead of everything else. And the liberals love to say the corporate republicans are greedy....

 

[krisy]

Afgahn Muslim Clerics are going to declare holy war against the U.S. in three days if we do not hand over the interrogators in question??!!!!! You gotta be kidding me!! The pompass attitudes just slay me.

As far as Newsweek goes,they won't learn their lesson. Just another chapter in trying to make the U.S. military look bad.

 

[Annie]

Afgahn Muslim Clerics are going to declare holy war against the U.S. in three days if we do not hand over the interrogators in question??!!!!! You gotta be kidding me!! The pompass attitudes just slay me.

As far as Newsweek goes,they won't learn their lesson. Just another chapter in trying to make the U.S. military look bad.

Just found this on Instapundit, think it says a lot:

http://instapundit.com/archives/023000.php

May 15, 2005
GEE, THANKS GUYS:


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Newsweek magazine on Sunday said it may have erred in a May 9 report that said U.S. interrogators desecrated the Koran at Guantanamo Bay, and apologized to victims of deadly violence sparked by the article.


Two points: (1) If they had wrongly reported the race of a criminal and produced a lynching, they'd feel much worse -- which is why they generally don't report such things, a degree of sensitivity they don't extend to reporting on, you know, minor topics like wars; and (2) If a blogger had made a similar mistake, with similar consequences, we'd be hearing about Big Media's superior fact-checking and layers of editors.

People died, and U.S. military and diplomatic efforts were damaged, because -- let's be clear here -- Newsweek was too anxious to get out a story that would make the Bush Administration and the military look bad.

posted at 03:37 PM by Glenn Reynolds

 

[wolverine]

Afgahn Muslim Clerics are going to declare holy war against the U.S. in three days if we do not hand over the interrogators in question??!!!!!

Fine. Let's lock and load.

 

[NATO AIR]

I have never, ever, "banned" something before but I will never touch a Newsweek magazine again or read one of their articles. These people should be thrown in jail for this, or sued in court by the victims of the violence in Afghanistan and Iraq. They stirred it up, they should pay.

Folks in the blogosphere should jump on Newsweek's shit like they just came out as the Al-Queda approved American news magazine, which is what they are.

That "source" should be executed for treason.

And by the way, this little exclusive of Newsweek's did almost as much damage to US standing abroad with Muslims and Arabs as Abu Gharib did.

 

[Annie]

The more I read on this, the more upset I get. Here is a comment from Roger Simon's blog that strikes me as 'spot on'.

http://www.rogerlsimon.com/mt-archives/2005/05/theres_no_busin.php

As much as I'm annoyed that Newsweek lied about this so called 'source' what is very revealing is the reaction by the Moslems. Are these people completely crazy? Riots and deaths because of a goofy news article? These religious zealots are becoming very scary and I hope that our citizenry are taking notice. This is not a religion of peace and reconciliation, there is insanity here and its not going away, its getting worse. While its a minority in a country it can be rather sedate but once it reaches a tipping point it becomes intolerable to other religions and becomes murderous.

There were less than 150 participants in the 'Peace' march in Washington DC, what does that tell us. Just pretend that this is a political party acting like this, leave religion out of it, what would you think of a party that goes around killing people. We have had countries and national parties like this before within the last 75 years and we have had to stomp the life out of them for our safety.

 

[KarlMarx]

I was listening to Rush on Friday afternoon and he read an article from the Washington Times that said that a prisoner who was being detained in Guantanamo ripped pages out of a Koran and flushed them down a toilet as an act of defiance...

Perhaps Newsweek ought to be awarded the "Dan Rather" award in journalism for twisting the facts, not checking their story but reporting it as true nonetheless.....

To paraphrase the Iraq anti-war activist slogan "Newsweek lied, people died..."

 

[pegwinn]

A-Freaking-Mazing.

First we got HerAllDoh attempting to give up positions in a tactical environment. Now we have unnamed sources which cause riots that leave people dead. I would not lose much sleep if newsweeks offices burned overnight.

 

[Annie]

http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/2005/05/i-almost-forgot-that-yesterday-was-set.html

The "Quran desecration" crisis has made the news all over the last several day but it seems over now as the original source says now that the reports of the descretion were incorrect.
Michelle Malkin links to an article on the Times (UK) online that covered parts of the issue:

AT LEAST nine people were killed yesterday as a wave of anti-American demonstrations swept the Islamic world from the Gaza Strip to the Java Sea, sparked by a single paragraph in a magazine alleging that US military interrogators had desecrated the Koran.....

The unrest began this week after Newsweek published an allegation that American military interrogators had desecrated the Islamic holy book in an effort to rattle detainees at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. The report said that they had placed the Koran on the lavatory inside inmates’ cells and had “in at least one case, flushed a holy book down the toilet” .

I thinks this irresponsible and reckless behavior at the end of the media must not pass unquestioned (some reasonable punishment won't be a bad idea though) because people were killed in some countries just because some reporter thought it was cool to write about a subject considered irritating by millions of people. I'm not trying to justify the riots here; on the contrary, I'm against them but (and correct me if I'm wrong) one must not put matches near gasoline.

I haven't payed any attention to this story from the beginning plus, it's technically impossible to flush a 700 page medium sized-if not large-book down a toilet!!

What is interesting is that Iraq witnessed no demonstration at all, not even a single statement of denoencemnet from anyone although Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya kept running updates on this subject almost every news-hour and have always talked about the descretion incident as if it were confirmed news.

If this is to indicate anything I think it indicvates that Iraqis are more concerned about their own lives than they're about the "issues" of the Islamic world's dignity and more important (and here I see our community approaching a turning point) is that people are giving the media less credit than they used to do.
- posted by Omar @ 23:13

Comments (27)

Saot Al-Iraq has just posted this thread of breaking news (Arabic link):

Trusted sources have confirmed information that a deal has been made between the Australian govt. and Harith Al-Dhari the head of the "Association of Muslim Scholars" to solve the case of the Australian hostage Douglas Wood.
Australia would be paying Al-Dhari 10 million US dollars in return for Wood's release and the exchange is supposed to take place within 48 hours.

Nothing on it so far on TV but if it proves to be true then I don't know what the hell is keeping the authorities from taking Dhari and his gang.
- posted by Omar @ 20:29
Comments (43)

According to Technorati, the total blog count has crossed the 10 million blogs milestone, awesome!
- posted by Omar @ 12:34
Comments (8)

I believe Kilometer Zero is the first iraqi film ever to compete at Cannes. Isn't that cool!?
I've seen a few short clips from the movie which the director had apparently done a fine job in creating and I'm looking forward to see the whole thing soon.
More updated details here.
- posted by Omar @ 11:23
Comments (8)

I almost forgot that yesterday was the set date for the Muslims-against terror rally in DC.
Well, I was a little bit lazy with my reading yesterday. Nevertheless, I've just found this report about the rally with some photos.
Via Glenn.
Sadly, the turnout was apparently not as high as desired but anyway, something is better than nothing.
The report mentions the presence of Al-Jazeera crew in the scene but so far there's no mention of the rally on Al-Jazerra, neither on TV nor on their website. Surprising? No!
- posted by Omar @ 10:42
Comments (12)

 

[krisy]

The more I read on this, the more upset I get. Here is a comment from Roger Simon's blog that strikes me as 'spot on'.

http://www.rogerlsimon.com/mt-archives/2005/05/theres_no_busin.php

I have to agree with this. As guilty as Newsweek is in all this,the extremists that carried on are just as guilty. That behavior should not be tolerated in a civilized society. What if we all did this when someone took the Ten Commandments out of ther courthouse,or when prayer wasn't allowed in schools? These people are absolute looney toones.

 

[IControlThePast]

Was Newsweek wrong? Yes of course. Are they to blame for the people's deaths? Not exactly. We're not really worried about inflaming Terrorists I mean who would become a Terrorist because of that magazine article, as opposed to the numerous other reasons they find excuses for recruiting. Can you really expect to hold Newsweek responsible for the actions of Terrorists?

Newsweek just tried to rush the information, and got a bad source, which puts them in with the likes of CBS, and the White House now.

 

[krisy]

Boy,the sh*t is hitting the fan on this one. Col. David Hunt is on Geraldo right now putting in his two cents,I mean really putting in his two cents!!! Fox is reporting tomorrow,being a Monday, will bring a lot more reaction.

 

[pegwinn]

Was Newsweek wrong? Yes of course. Are they to blame for the people's deaths? Not exactly. We're not really worried about inflaming Terrorists I mean who would become a Terrorist because of that magazine article, as opposed to the numerous other reasons they find excuses for recruiting. Can you really expect to hold Newsweek responsible for the actions of Terrorists?

Newsweek just tried to rush the information, and got a bad source, which puts them in with the likes of CBS, and the White House now.

Of course I can hold them accountable. They stand on a platform and talk about the integrity :blah2: :blah2: :blah2: and how noble they are. They scream and cry if we question the first amendment protections and priveleges. And they say that bloggers and other normal people don't rate those same priveleges.

Those terrorists may have seized on any excuse, but did someone have to hand them one on a silver platter?

 

[IControlThePast]

Of course I can hold them accountable. They stand on a platform and talk about the integrity :blah2: :blah2: :blah2: and how noble they are. They scream and cry if we question the first amendment protections and priveleges. And they say that bloggers and other normal people don't rate those same priveleges.

Those terrorists may have seized on any excuse, but did someone have to hand them one on a silver platter?

I don't question the fault in their journalistic integrity, although Newsweek's inaccuracy doesn't mean Bloggers are accurate. Most blog errors go unaccounted for, while mass media ones are often quite blaring (because we have bloggers).

The Terrorists don't believe in the credibility of the western mass media, they were just picking any excuse. If they really cared about Islam they wouldn't be Terrorists in the first place.

 

[pegwinn]

I don't question the fault in their journalistic integrity, although Newsweek's inaccuracy doesn't mean Bloggers are accurate. Most blog errors go unaccounted for, while mass media ones are often quite blaring (because we have bloggers).

The Terrorists don't believe in the credibility of the western mass media, they were just picking any excuse. If they really cared about Islam they wouldn't be Terrorists in the first place.

Never intended to imply Bloggers were any more accurate. Only that MSM wishes to deny the Bloggers the same protections and priveleges they enjoy. Terrorists may not believe our media, but they will use it to thier own ends. Terrorists must still locate a reason for doing what they do that will set well with thier followers. Why did newsweek have to make it easy for them?

 

[IControlThePast]

Never intended to imply Bloggers were any more accurate. Only that MSM wishes to deny the Bloggers the same protections and priveleges they enjoy. Terrorists may not believe our media, but they will use it to thier own ends. Terrorists must still locate a reason for doing what they do that will set well with thier followers. Why did newsweek have to make it easy for them?

Newsweek was just trying to do its job, make money, by being the first to break a story and got a bad source in the rush. Terrorists can easily locate reasons by dropping in on a "hate America first" meeting. Anything could have set the Terrorists off. Looking at the explicit War against them, we're not too concerned about saying things they disagree with. Borrowing from an idea expressed by a previous poster, if Fox reported a story on how the Ten Commandments was not allowed in Courtrooms and a Fanatical Christian killed a judge over it, that wouldn't be Fox's responsibility for providing the motive: the guy was crazy. The same thing goes for Newsweek and Islamic Terrorists.

 

[pegwinn]

Newsweek was just trying to do its job, make money, by being the first to break a story and got a bad source in the rush. Terrorists can easily locate reasons by dropping in on a "hate America first" meeting. Anything could have set the Terrorists off. Looking at the explicit War against them, we're not too concerned about saying things they disagree with. Borrowing from an idea expressed by a previous poster, if Fox reported a story on how the Ten Commandments was not allowed in Courtrooms and a Fanatical Christian killed a judge over it, that wouldn't be Fox's responsibility for providing the motive: the guy was crazy. The same thing goes for Newsweek and Islamic Terrorists.

Depends on the nature of the reporting as well. If it was written in such a manner as to inflame, your mythical fox would be liable in my personal view.

 

[CSM]

I find it very curious that the mainstream media is ready to minimize Newsweek's complicity in this incident. That same media has been and still is trying to crucify the current administration for allegations that the President and his team lied, twisted the truth and caused the death of many as a result. Now we have one of the media's own who has admitted that they lied and twisted the truth (the result of which was the death of many and possibly more to come) and we are hearing things like "they were just trying to make money and they got a bad source"; as if they broke the rules of ettiquette in a minor way.

I guess I should not be surprised, as hypocracy seems to be the norm for that crowd and it's followers.

 

[Adam's Apple]

Those SOB's need to be held accountable and run out of business for good. First we had CBS reporting on Abu Ghraib, even though they knew when they aired their report that the military was working to correct the problem and had asked CBS not to broadcast the story because of the problems that might result. Now we have their brother in print, Newsweek stirring up another batch of trouble in the Middle East! I can just see them all salivating around their conference table at the prospect of publishing this great, damaging story to Rumsfeld and President Bush and the WOT.

Isn't it the liberal MSM who constantly tells us about the damage the Bush Administration is doing to America's reputation around the world? Well, take a good look at yourselves, clowns!!! Your little game is crystal clear to those who will see.

Let's not let double standards be employed here--make those bastards pay BIG TIME for this irresponsible betrayal of their country and its military.