Howie's
Lead:
Newsweek apologized yesterday for an inaccurate report on the treatment of detainees that triggered several days of rioting in Afghanistan and other countries in which at least 15 people died.
Sorry, Howie, even the mediawhorish Kit Seelye, in her NYT story on the subject, shows your boviating for the agitprop it is. For instance, she highlights how
... the magazine, while acknowledging possible errors in the article, stopped short of retracting it.
More after the jump.
They apologized for any errors that may have been there: but they didn't say that the Koran flushing story was an error (probably having in mind the fact that as SusanHu has helpfully shown the story has been all over the place).
Here's what has got Howie excited (as he reveals just before the sign-off paragraphs in which he covers his humungous ass by noting for the record that while this particular story is only very likely true, other such stories are certainly true):
Critics are already pouncing on the story as the latest in a high-profile series of media blunders at such respected news organizations as the New York Times, USA Today and CBS News. In this case, the consequences -- deadly riots -- were far more serious than a breach of journalistic ethics.
So maybe they are: and maybe they're wrong!
Beyond that, if using a single source "on background" is a breach of journalistic ethics, then fire the whole WaPo staff, starting with the Ho himself. Note also that, again as SusanHu has shown, this story has come to light through a series of independent channels, meaning that the leak to the WaPo leading to the Periscope item needed no second source. Finally, the Pentagon censor signing off on it should count for something in this regard.
Newsweak should be standing firmer than it is; but it is a lot firmer than Howie's limp flogging of a "liberal media causes anti-American riots" line. No way we should stand for these fascistic attempts to intimidate the media.
My favorite part of this story, unmentioned to this point in the commentaries, is the Pentagon spokesman who says the story is "demonstrably false."
Huh? What, are they going to roll the videotape of evrery minute of every interrogation in every cell to demonstrate that this never happened?
It is demonstrable by the laws of logic that this story is NOT demonstrably false. Which makes that line like so much of what oozes from that once-proud institution demonstrably BULLSHIT.