May 17, 2005
The Crucifixion of Newsweek?

by Danny Schechter
www.newsdissector.org/blog/

Now it seems to be Newsweek's turn to be crucified for the sins of the 'liberal media.' It is Rathergate all over again, only this time the magazine's reporting is being blamed for riots and deaths in Afghanistan, a response ostensibly to a report on the desecration of the Qur'an in a prison camp. In one quick swipe of a blogger's keyboard, the blame game has shifted from expose the abusers to beat the press. Suddenly, Newsweek is a the poster child for the blame America First media.

At first, the magazine stood by the accuracy of its report but, with pressure building, editor Mark Whittaker posted this retraction late yesterday:

'Based on what we know now, we are retracting our original story that an internal military investigation had uncovered Qur'an abuse at Guantanamo Bay. Similar abuses have been reported in the past but the magazine says its current story could not be corroborated.'

Here's a longer explanation:

'Although other major news organizations had aired charges of Qur'an desecration based only on the testimony of detainees, we believed our story was newsworthy because a U.S. official said government investigators turned up this evidence. So we published the item. After several days, newspapers in Pakistan and Afghanistan began running accounts of our story. At that point, as Evan Thomas, Ron Moreau and Sami Yousafzai report this week, the riots started and spread across the country, fanned by extremists and unhappiness over the economy.

'Last Friday, a top Pentagon spokesman told us that a review of the probe cited in our story showed that it was never meant to look into charges of Qur'an desecration. The spokesman also said the Pentagon had investigated other desecration charges by detainees and found them 'not credible.' Our original source later said he couldn't be certain about reading of the alleged Qur'an incident in the report we cited, and said it might have been in other investigative documents or drafts. Top administration officials have promised to continue looking into the charges, and so will we. But 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.'

The White House has stepped into the fray:

'White House spokesman Scott McClellan had said 'A retraction is a good first step,' al-Jazeera reports: 'McClellan said after Newsweek issued its statement.

''This allegation was unsubstantiated and it was contrary to everything that we value and all that our military works to uphold. We encourage Newsweek to now work diligently to help undo what damage can be undone.''

On Imus this morning, there was a sneering call for 'heads to roll' at Newsweek. One of the motley on-air crew there, Sid Rosenberg, asked, 'Did any Americans die?' When assured none had, he said, 'So what's the problem?'

He did intimate that there is speculation that Newsweek may have been set up by false information from the Pentagon. No evidence was given.

Muslims in the region are skeptical, reports Reuters:

'KABUL, Afghanistan (Reuters) -- Muslims in Afghanistan and Pakistan were skeptical on Monday about an apparent retraction by Newsweek magazine of a report that U.S. interrogators desecrated the Koran and said U.S. pressure was behind the climb-down.

''We will not be deceived by this,' Islamic cleric Mullah Sadullah Abu Aman told Reuters in the northern Afghan province of Badakhshan, referring to the magazine's retraction.

''This is a decision by America to save itself. It comes because of American pressure. Even an ordinary illiterate peasant understands this and won't accept it.''

Already, there is a pile on on Newsweek by many in the media elite who never acknowledged the systematic errors and institutional biases in media coverage of the Iraq War. Others are just faulting Newsweek for trying to have it both ways. Here's Jeff Jarvis on BuzzMachine:

'...Newsweek's nonretraction-retraction is going to continue to cause problems and is just as bad as CBS's nonretraction-retraction in the Rather story, except this one is dangerous. They should have said that they retract the story because they do not have any reason to know that it is true. We are not in the business of reporting what might be true, what could be true if only we know more. We are in the business of reporting what we know is true. Aren't we?'

Poynter reports:

'Michael Isikoff, Newsweek's principal reporter on the original story, told The Wall Street Journal his main source was 'good and credible.' Yet, as of Saturday, that source 'could no longer be sure,' according to The Washington Post, which quotes Isikoff as saying, 'Obviously we all feel horrible about what flowed from this, but it's important to remember there was absolutely no lapse in journalistic standards here.''

WHAT THE BLOGGERS SAID

Yesterday, many bloggers were standing by the Newsweek story, before Newsweek changed its position. The Center for American Progress challenged the claims that the magazine was wrong:

'This is factually incorrect. Newsweek and its source stand by their stories regarding the use of the Qur'an during interrogations. The source 'clearly recalled reading investigative reports about mishandling the Qur'an, including a toilet incident.''

www.msnbc.msn.com

Others said similar things:

dailykos.com
www.juancole.com
rawstory.com

'Reports in the media and by NGOs suggest that U.S. interrogators have desecrated the Qur'an on multiple occasions. The 'error' in the Newsweek story is not in whether the desecration happened but in whether or not details about it are included in a new SouthCom report on Guantanamo.

'Beginning with Abu Ghraib, and continuing for more than a year, accurate accounts of objectionable U.S. interrogation techniques (like the one in Newsweek) have pushed global anti-American sentiment to historic highs. The Bush administration initiated investigations and prosecutions that, while deeply flawed, at least gave the impression that Washington was concerned about the allegations.'

Reuters

Why the Newsweek
Mess Really Matters

thinkprogress.org

OFFENSIVE

After months of a strategy of defensive denial, the Bushies are back on the offensive, the position they most like to play. But even some conservatives are not buying it. Here's Andrew Sullivan:

'We have yet to see what's at the root, if anything, of the Newsweek story. But I think it's telling that some bloggers have devoted much, much more energy to covering the Newsweek error than they ever have to covering any sliver of the widespread evidence of detainee abuse that made the Newsweek piece credible in the first place.

'A simple question: after U.S. interrogators have tortured over two dozen detainees to death, after they have wrapped one in an Israeli flag, after they have smeared naked detainees with fake menstrual blood, after they have told one detainee to 'Fuck Allah,' after they have ordered detainees to pray to Allah in order to kick them from behind in the head, is it completely beyond credibility that they would also have desecrated the Koran?

'Sullivan's answer: no, of course not.'

AndrewSullivan.com