Newsweek apologises for getting story wrong

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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…

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.

(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com …
 
Typical of the MSM. Anything to make Bush look bad. Newsweek should be held criminally liable for inciting a riot.

PF
 
“I wonder if Dollar Rent a Car, Sprint, Hyundai, Exxon/Mobil, Franklin Templeton Investments, or any other sponsors of the above report know what they’re supporting? I’d act quickly to protect the brand.”

Mudville Gazette has coverage on this story, here:

mudvillegazette.com/archives/002829.html
 
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WanderAimlessly:
Typical of the MSM. Anything to make Bush look bad. Newsweek should be held criminally liable for inciting a riot.

PF
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They put troops in even more danger 😦
 
FAIZABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) – A group of Afghan Muslim clerics have threatened to call for a holy war against the United States in three days unless it hands over military interrogators reported to have desecrated the Quran.

The warning on Sunday came after 16 Afghans were killed and more than 100 hurt last week in the worst anti-U.S. protests across the country since U.S. forces invaded in 2001 to oust the Taliban for sheltering Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network.

The clerics in the northeastern province of Badakhshan said they wanted U.S. President George W. Bush to handle the matter honestly “and hand the culprits over to an Islamic country for punishment.” “If that does not happen within three days, we will launch a jihad against America,” said a statement issued by about 300 clerics, referring to Muslim holy war, after meeting in the main mosque in the provincial capital, Faizabad.

(Excerpt) Read more at edition.cnn.com …
 
That’s my guess why Newsweek is saying it “may” have gotten the story wrong. They got the word from their corporate masters.
 
Powerline has an update:

UPDATE: Reader Otto Timmons has pointed out Mark Whitaker’s editorial note on the subject: Two weeks ago, in our issue dated May 9, Michael Isikoff and John Barry reported in a brief item in our periscope section that U.S. military investigators had found evidence that American guards at the detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, had committed infractions in trying to get terror suspects to talk, including in one case flushing a Qur’an down a toilet. Their information came from a knowledgeable U.S. government source, and before deciding whether to publish it we approached two separate Defense Department officials for comment. One declined to give us a response; the other challenged another aspect of the story but did not dispute the Qur’an charge.

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 Afghan-istan 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.

NEWSWEEK regrets it got a part of the story wrong. NEWSWEEK vows to continue looking into the charges. If there’s no substance to the charges, they undoubtedly want to break that story. Pathetic.
 
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Thekla:
That’s my guess why Newsweek is saying it “may” have gotten the story wrong. They got the word from their corporate masters.
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Looks more likely to be that they were running on hearsay and the person who claimed to have read some emails now has corrected what he did or didn’t read. In other words, they didn’t double check their sources and ran with a story for reasons of their own (probably having to do with ‘breaking a hot story’).

By the way, have you ever tried to flush a book, any book, of more than 200 pages down a toilet?

More information on the story here:

Powerline coverage
Dadmanly linked with Newsweek Lied – People Died
Flopping Aces linked with The Newsweek Riots
linked with Newsweek just can’t help itself.
 
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gilliam:
By the way, have you ever tried to flush a book,

Yeah, that is what I thought first when I heard this. Who can flush any book down the toilet?

I think that if Newsweek set this off, then they have some explaining to do. This is so true of much of our media that tries to get us in trouble over the Guantonimo Bay detainees. They went too far this time, and they should pay a price.
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This is irresponsible reporting at its worst. I did not call it journalism because it ain’t. Any idiot should have known what was likely to happen among extremists with the publishing of such a story, even if it happened to be true. What happened to discretion? Whose side are they on, anyway?
 
What say we turn over the editorial staff of Newsweek, and this article’s reporter, to the Islamic clerics…? 😉

They cause untold danger to our troops with their unsubstantiated “hot scoops” and cause the deaths of the Moslem extremists who believed it. They should have to answer to that with more than a mere “we regret…blah, blah, blah…”
 
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geezerbob:
This is irresponsible reporting at its worst. I did not call it journalism because it ain’t. Any idiot should have known what was likely to happen among extremists with the publishing of such a story, even if it happened to be true. What happened to discretion? Whose side are they on, anyway?
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Of course, the reported (accurate) goings on at Abu Graib i.e. Miss English et al. and the Guatanamo Bay detainees was not going to create any muslim backlash? only the press can do that?:hmmm:
 
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walstan:
Of course, the reported (accurate) goings on at Abu Graib i.e. Miss English et al. and the Guatanamo Bay detainees was not going to create any muslim backlash? only the press can do that?:hmmm:
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the press with the help of some left wing misguided souls… :eek:
 
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walstan:
Of course, the reported (accurate) goings on at Abu Graib i.e. Miss English et al. and the Guatanamo Bay detainees was not going to create any muslim backlash? only the press can do that?:hmmm:
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You are wandering. We were discussing the erroneous report by Newsweek.
 
"But the Newsweek report was only the latest in a series of allegations by detainees that go back at least to March 2004 when three British detainees were released from Guantanamo.

The three Britons alleged in a joint statement that Guantanamo guards kicked and threw around prison-issued Korans and on occasion threw them in buckets that served as toilets."

The only thing new here is that Newsweek “reported” it because they say they had confirmation from a non-detainee.
 
Panis Angelicas:
What say we turn over the editorial staff of Newsweek, and this article’s reporter, to the Islamic clerics…? 😉

They cause untold danger to our troops with their unsubstantiated “hot scoops” and cause the deaths of the Moslem extremists who believed it. They should have to answer to that with more than a mere “we regret…blah, blah, blah…”
Click to expand...
Great idea! I’d like to send them a free ticket to Kabul where they will be met by the people I saw on the nightly news. The journalists were unrpentent saying it was an ‘honest mistake.’

Fer cryin out loud you KNOW a man wrote the article;) . Women know that you can’t flush a KLEENEX down a toilet, much less a book. What were these jerks thinking? Or I guess we can assume they were not. What sixteen people DIED for yet another MSM blunder

Lisa N
 
Lisa N:
Great idea! I’d like to send them a free ticket to Kabul where they will be met by the people I saw on the nightly news. The journalists were unrpentent saying it was an ‘honest mistake.’

Fer cryin out loud you KNOW a man wrote the article;) . Women know that you can’t flush a KLEENEX down a toilet, much less a book. What were these jerks thinking? Or I guess we can assume they were not. What sixteen people DIED for yet another MSM blunder

Lisa N
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Honestly I can’t say for certain if any pages of a Quran ever made it to a toilet in the detainee camp, but I do know that the MSM has written much that belongs in a toilet. Excuse me, but I am tired of their blunders and attacks on our own country.
 
Newsweek Apologizes Inaccurate Report on Koran Led to Riots

By Howard Kurtz Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, May 16, 2005; A01

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.

Editor Mark Whitaker expressed regret over the item in the magazine’s “Periscope” section, saying it was based on a confidential source – a “senior U.S. government official” – who now says he is not sure whether the story is true. The deadly consequences of the May 1 report, and its reliance on the unnamed source, have sparked considerable anger at the Pentagon. Spokesman Bryan Whitman called Newsweek’s report “irresponsible” and “demonstrably false,” saying the magazine "hid behind anonymous sources which by their own admission do not withstand scrutiny. Unfortunately, they cannot retract the damage that they have done to this nation or those who were viciously attacked by those false allegations."

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com …

NEWSWEEK Apologizes; Afghans Want Action…**

NEWSWEEK: How did NEWSWEEK get its facts wrong?.. **
 
Newsweek did not get the story wrong.

Newsweek and the rest of the liberal media have been trying to get American troops and locals killed since May of 2003.

This time one of them got caught is all.
 
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