Posted on 05/16/2005 7:21:31 AM PDT by areafiftyone
WASHINGTON, May 16 (Reuters) - The White House said on Monday that a Newsweek report based on an anonymous source had damaged the U.S. image overseas by alleging that U.S. interrogators desecrated the Koran at Guantanamo Bay.
The May 9 report triggered several days of rioting in Afghanistan and other countries in which at least 16 people were killed.
Newsweek's editor, Mark Whitaker, apologized to the victims on Sunday and said the magazine inaccurately reported that U.S. military investigators had confirmed that personnel at the detention facility in Cuba had flushed the Muslim holy book down the toilet.
"It's puzzling that while Newsweek now acknowledges that they got the facts wrong, they refused to retract the story," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. "I think there's a certain journalistic standard that should be met and in this instance it was not."
The report sparked violent protests across the Muslim world -- from Afghanistan, where 16 were killed and more than 100 injured, to Pakistan, Indonesia and Gaza. In the past week the reported desecration was condemned in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Malaysia and by the Arab League.
McClellan complained that the story was "based on a single anonymous source who could not personally substantiate the allegation that was made."
"The report has had serious consequences," he said. "People have lost their lives. The image of the United States abroad has been damaged."
Newsweek said in its May 23 edition that the information had come from a "knowledgeable government source" who told Newsweek that a military report on abuse at Guantanamo Bay said interrogators flushed at least one copy of the Koran down a toilet in a bid to make detainees talk.
But the source later told the magazine he could not be certain he had seen an account of the Koran incident in the military report and that it might have been in other investigative documents or drafts, Newsweek said.
Newsweek: Mission Accomplished!
Why? They'll just sit somewhere else and make stuff up.
Liberals have lost more credibility in the last 5 years than in the last 50.
"Fake, but accurate," indeed. They learned the wrong lesson from RatherGate.
Yea but our soldiers are not in those other places. They are a danger to our troops!
Newsweek can retract this from now until the cows come home, and it will not make any difference. The story of the US soldiers flushing a Koran at Guantanamo has entered the Muslim consciousness, and it will remain lodged there, permanently. A hundred years from, they will still be talking about the BS report in Newsweek, and accept it all as the absolute truth.
I don't want to hear about apologies. I want a murder investigation to be started to find that source. I want Spiky Mikey in jail.
Another liberal attempt to bring down the Bush Administration and pump up the hatred for the United States and our fine military gone awry!!
I'd like to see them publicly banned from press conf until they can "learn to report".
if the White House is ticked off, they should ban Newsweek's reporters from the building for a year or two.
Just like those riots in Brooklyn, where Christians killed dozens of people and injured hundreds, when they were offended by a "painting" of the Blessed Virgin covered with elephant dung.
Newsweek should purchase and house in their offices, hallways, conference rooms: 100,000 Toilets.
Newsweek then must "publish" their typical subscription... whatever it is, ?1,000,000 per week...etc.
Newsweeks' employees, for one year, must spend their days ripping the pages from their freshly published ragazines, and flushing down the newly purchased Toilets.
At the end of the year, Newsweek can resume selling their rags. Newsweek can keep the toilets.
Hmmmm...
I wonder what could explain Newsweak's rush to publish a "news-item" that defames our troops and our country...
It's about time that the advertisers in that "news magazine" require that some ADULT editors be hired, IMHO.
"Bashing"?
Oh, I see. If you criticize a media outlet for reporting lies that leads to people getting killed, it's "bashing".
Amazing.
They should be held responsible for their actions. Make reparations to the victims and a public apology to the Muslim people.
When you look at it this way, and when you realize that the MSM is essentially the mouthpiece of liberalism (and has been since journalism became an academic subject at major universities), the inevitability of stories like this one in Newsweek, and Dan Rather's phony Bush National Guard story, is obvious. As is their refusal to retract. "Inaccurate but true" actually makes sense to those who are at war with reality.
Investigative journalism becomes advocacy journalism, and advocacy journalism becomes fantasy journalism.
(steely)
I think President Bush should hold an immediate news conference in the White House Bathroom where he personally flushes Newsweek pages and staff down the toilet, one at a time....
Oh please. Anything to avoid confronting the realities of Islamofascism, I guess.
Sounds good.
You got that straight - the got the exact reaction they wanted.
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