Posted on 05/15/2005 10:31:22 AM PDT by Pikamax
May 23 issue - Did a report in NEWSWEEK set off a wave of deadly anti-American riots in Afghanistan? That's what numerous news accounts suggested last week as angry Afghans took to the streets to protest reports, linked to us, that U.S. interrogators had desecrated the Qur'an while interrogating Muslim terror suspects. We were as alarmed as anyone to hear of the violence, which left at least 15 Afghans dead and scores injured. But I think it's important for the public to know exactly what we reported, why, and how subsequent events unfolded.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Freedom of the Press carries with it an implicit understanding of truthfulness. This is really no different than court rulings that screaming "fire" in a crowded theater is not protected as Free Speech.
Correct. This is standard-operating-proceedure for the MSM. It's obvious that after RATher, the MSM will 'apologize' for anti-administration propaganda... and blame it as anything but what it is... DNC 24/7 PROPAGANDA!
But if the incidents were true, reporting on them would have resulted in the same number of deaths.
That would have been OK with you since it was good investigative reporting? I'm confused by your statement. Are you saying that you don't see a difference between dying for a lie, and dying for something truthful?
Nice first post, welcome to FR!
They should pay reparations to the families of the people who got killed because of their shoddy journalism.
The same Evan Thomas who boasted during the presidential campaign that the MSM's coverage was worth at least 15 percentage points to John Kerry.
And responsibility.
Newsweek should have known that reporting this "story" would have negative consequences given the fanaticism of our enemy, whether the story were true or false. Was it that important?
That's the issue that everyone seems to be overlooking.
Let's see:
We have Dan Rather with a bogus National Guard memo story (CBS).
We have the Gloria Borger interview with Ken Starr that CBS spun to make it say the opposite of what he actually said.
Yesterday, it was revealed that the New York Times extensively quoted an opinion in an Op-ed from an "expert" in psychology. The "expert" turned out to be a grad student, not a degreed psychologist.
Now we have Newsweek making up bogus stories that cause riots.
Can we trust anything we read in the MSM any more?
I know there are many other examples that could be added to this list. Anyone wwant to give it a try?
Don't buy their papers; don't visit their web pages; don't patronize them in any way that gets them revenue. Newspaper circulation is in freefall because of this very phenomenon.
Why haven't I ever heard of Newsweek or the Times getting a story wrong in political favor of a Republican administration?
We haven't been able to trust them for decades.
But we didn't know it before -- we're only just recently finding it out.
Kind of like pouring gasoline on a house fire.
The one who is doing the dying doesn't see a damn bit of difference.
Posters are upset because people died due to shoddy reporting. I say their outrage is misdirected. The story should never had been reported, true or not.
Certainly if the story were true, the same number of innocents would have been killed. Would posters have been upset with Newsweek for reporting a true story? Sounds to me like they wouldn't, even though the same number would have died since the murderers were reacting to the story, not the acual event.
A little hypocritical?
Yep, that's the one.
As I read your comment I got to thinking about the few conservatives who also write for this rag as well.
Could only come up with Will, wonder if he will comment on this?
Somebody must take Newsweek to task, and not just the Mark Burns or Howie Kurtz's of the world.
What if the story were actually true and Newsweek reported it and the same number of people were killed? That's OK with you that it was reported?
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