Free Republic

Last week, you probably heard all about Newsweek’s inadvertent little faux pas regarding Gitmo, the Noble Qur’an, and a popular porcelain fixture. The story wasn’t true, although the lib/dem/soc/commie media are playing the “let’s pretend it really is true anyway” game. Oddly enough, they didn’t learn their lesson from the last time they tried that (see also: CBS, 60 Minutes, document forgery, etc.) so they trotted it out for another go. Folks are lamenting the 15 to 18 people who apparently died in the ensuing riots. Nobody knows the names of these people so far, or exactly where and how...

LAWRENCE DIRITA (Pentagon spokesman): Good afternoon, folks. As I mentioned to you earlier, we are very happy and pleased to have Brigadier General Jay Hood, who is the commander of Joint Task Force Guantanamo. General Hood has been engaged in -- and is currently engaged in the commander's inquiry with respect to the situation involving the use of religious articles at Guantanamo. I mentioned he continues his investigation -- his inquiry. He's not finished with it. It's not our normal practice, nor will it be our normal practice in the future, to offer interim results of our inquiries. But under...

FOREST CITY -- A sign in front of a Baptist church on one of the most traveled highways in the county stirred controversy over religious tolerance and first-amendment rights this weekend. A sign in front of Danieltown Baptist Church, located at 2361 U.S. 221 south reads "The Koran needs to be flushed," and the Rev. Creighton Lovelace, pastor of the church, is not apologizing for the display. "I believe that it is a statement supporting the word of God and that it (the Bible) is above all and that any other religious book that does not teach Christ as...

When Newsweek published the inflammatory article about interrogators at Guantanamo flushing a Koran down the toilet, this writer believes that both the reporter and the editor knew precisely what they were doing. Tragically, it was intentional that they wrote the story and in the business sense it was a “mistake” to publish it but otherwise, the story itself was a lie. It is actually comical to watch the leftist “spin machine” working overtime to “control” the damage. Sadly, that once reputable magazine is now worth little more than for use in a sleazy restroom. Part of the problem is that...

Newsweek floundered in journalistic purgatory over the weekend, unable to confirm or completely retract the "Periscope" item from its May 9 issue that incensed rioters in Afghanistan and Pakistan; 16 people died in the melees. I wonder why Newsweek wasn't more skeptical about Quran-desecration charges. Muslims so venerate the Quran that they are outraged if anyone touches one without first washing their hands, let alone put it into a dung-hole. Compare the ubiquity of the toilet story with other kinds of Quran desecration. In my Nexis sifting I found only a handful of examples from the last 25 years: A...

National Review Online's Marshall suggested Newsweek probably didn't know desecrating a Quran is a capital offense in "Saudi Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan, and elsewhere" — with enlightened Pakistan meting out only life imprisonment. Frankly, if we tolerate artwork such as "Piss Christ" and "Dung Virgin," we should be able to shrug off Commode Quran. As a Pakistani journalist told The New York Times, the Newsweek item confirmed suspicions of "a straight disrespect for the sensitivities of Muslims." Please. We see the "sensitivities" of some Muslims blowing up other Muslims on a daily basis in Iraq. We saw the sensitivities of Albanian...

It was not my intention to write about Newsweek. After all, as we all know, it’s not news when a dog bites a man. So, none of us should be too surprised to find out once again that the major news media has cooked up a story that simultaneously gets headlines around the world and gives America a black eye. Even if it had been true, it didn’t have the pizazz of Abu Ghraib with its naked bodies and snarling dogs. But if you can’t have steak, sometimes you have to make do with hamburger. Just so long as it’s...

Finally, liberals have a slogan that A) rhymes and B) is actually true: "Newsweek Lied, People Died!" So you can imagine my surprise to find out conservatives are the only ones saying it. Where's the liberal outrage over the deaths of at least 17 innocent people, thanks to the bogus Newsweek report that American interrogators flushed copies of the Koran down the toilet? Where are the scores of foul-smelling leftist hippies screeching, "Newsweek Lied, People Died!?" Newsweek has since retracted the story after a 5 year-old child demonstrated for them the impossibility of flushing any kind of book down the...

Newsweek retracts story but the liberal media says it's probably true anyway and points the finger at the bullies in the administration. Newsweek has rejected the resignation of Michael Isikoff, which is probably the correct thing to do. Although the fabricated story was written by Isikoff, it was Newsweek that published the libel and it is Newsweek that is responsible for the deaths in Afghanistan. But all the big shots at Newsweek were innocent. In the case of the Koran item, Newsweek Managing Editor Whitaker said he did not see the final version because he was traveling on personal business....

Newsweek magazine and reporter-writers, Mark Isikoff and John Barry forgot the most important and one of the oldest clichés in the business, “You can’t unring a bell.” They also forgot one of the most memorable slogans in WW II, “Loose Lips Sink Ships.” As a result, over 15 people are dead in Afghanistan and many hurt. Riots continue in Muslim countries. All this is due to that fact that Newsweek reported that U.S. investigators found evidence that interrogators had flushed a copy of Muslim's holy book down a toilet in an attempt to rattle detainees. Just the thought that it...

"Oops, sorry. It looks like we were wrong." Thus Newsweek apologizes for its story in last week's issue that American intelligence interrogators in Guantanamo desecrated the Koran in front of Muslim prisoners and flushed it down the toilet - an error that has to date cost the lives of 16 people killed in the anti-American riots that the story set off in various parts of the Islamic world. One wonders why a supposedly responsible magazine like Newsweek didn't manifest a tad less credulity toward a report indicating that American intelligence is run not only by anti-Muslim barbarians, but also by...

By DAVID ROYSE TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Florida's Legislature is flush with good ideas. Sen. Al Lawson's involves a 2 cent-per-roll tax on toilet paper to pay for wastewater treatment and help small towns upgrade their sewer systems. The Democratic lawmaker's pay-as-you-go bill has been the source of many jokes - bathroom humor you might say - but he says the issue is a serious one, especially in some of the fast-growing Panhandle coastal counties in his district. "They're experiencing a tremendous boom in growth and they're not able to accommodate the growth," Lawson said. "We've got 17 million people...

(Flushing-WABC, August 12, 2003) — Today, MTA crews have a dirty job ahead of them. They will be searching for the source of some raw sewage which has created a smelly mess on the tracks of the seven subway train in Flushing. If you're taking the seven train at the Main Street Station in Flushing, you better hold your breath!! Straphanger: "You can smell it. It is really strong." No one knows exactly what it is but local officials have a pretty good idea. Queen's City Council Member John Liu can sum it up. John Liu, Queens City Council Member:...