Thanks a lot, Newsweek.
So if you hadn't heard, Newsweek printed a story alleging that US interrogators at Guantanamo Bay flushed the Koran down the toilet. (I'm not joking.) The Muslim world issued it's usual calm and nuanced response (pictured above).
Anywho, after 16 deaths and over 100 injuries from the riots and protests Newsweek announces that (whoops) the report was entirely inaccurate. "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," Editor Mark Whitaker said.
It's cool, Mark. We all make mistakes now and then.
Read the whole story here
11 Comments:
uh...pretty big 'whoops' there, idiot. *rolling eyes* What are these people smoking in the boardroom?
Someone should make Mark flush the story down the toilet on TV.
"Someone should make Mark flush the story down the toilet on TV."
Sorry but, LOL.
wait--- so how do we know that this story ISN'T true? it sounds like it easily could have happened, but the white house wants them to rectract it because of the out cry.
Maybe it is true (I wouldn't put such an act past hardcore interrogators) but 3 things make it seem pretty legit to me:
1) Despite the amount of power in the White House it still can't call up a major news magazine and make them retract a story they don't like. If that was the case we wouldn't know the name Monica Lewinski and would think that we really found loads of WMDs in Iraq.
2) Also I don't think any government office is dumb enough to call up a huge media outlet and demand that they violate the first amendment. Just imagine the poop-storm that would break: "Hold the presses! George Bush just called us and told us to break the constitution!" They would love it.
3) It takes just about an act of God for a news outlet to admit that they printed bad information in a story. It does major long-term damage to their reputation. Just look at the recent CBS scandal to see how long the media will sandbag.
Those are just my 3 cents.
Make sense? Hope so. :)
makes perfect sense. Because of the CBS scandel, people are probably less likey to err on the side of the news being legit and unbiased. We ALL know it happens and CBS is our proof.
Whoops -- Sadie I don't want you to think I was serious with the sassy "make sense? hope so." line. It's a little saying of adolescant-aunt-Melanie's that Walker could tell you more about. (Sorry, Aunt Melanie if you're reading this.)
Otherwise I was serious.
I also want to clarify that if this story is true than I think the media has every right to publish it -- riots or not. My big issue with this story is that they didn't seem to do any fact checking and even pulled stuff out of thin air.
Oh, I didn't think you were being sassy. No worries...Walker won't think we're ganging up on him. Even if I wasn't aware of the "inside joke", I was just adding a cent or two to your 0.03--making it an even five.
:)
I was having a conversation with one of my old bosses, Chris, about this subject. She was telling me about how sick this story made her and how she knew that it was the White House that made them retracted the story. She then started talking about how the "Christian fascists" of this country would do such a terrible thing to these poor Muslims. How we Christians had no respect for other religions of the world. I pointed out to her that in this country, (a country founded by Christians, on Christian beliefs) we were free to practices what ever religion we wanted, and because she was a lesbian the same people that she was protecting would actually kill her. The point was lost on her and she went into a tirade about how W. was systematically turning our country against anyone with a different opinion then the “strict rightwing”. Anyway I just thought it was an interesting conversation.
Brian
Hi Brian! Welcome to the blog.
It sounds like you had a fun conversation there... *enter Matt Corbin voice* Yikes, man. *end Matt Corbin voice*
Ummmm. Excuse me, but we live in a wonderful place and there are lots of nasty people in the Whitehouse, the Senate, Newsweek, FoxNews,the music business, academia, Hollywood, GM, Odwalla, Birkenstock, etc., who keep everything moving along nicely behind the scenes -- there's no shortage of sinister, evil people wherever you go. I think the Newsweek story is what it is, because folks in the quaint ol' print media and tv keep on insulting their consumer's intelligence and serving up their brand of fecal matter, dressed up as chocolate mousse, just like Pravda or some other tendentious propaganda rag. This time, they got caught. When I pick up a copy of Time or Newsweek, I read it in the same way I would read Mad Magazine or SPIN or the Lego magazine... it's entertaining and kinda funny (scary, too) to think some people live and die by what's published there.
It's also tedious having to listen to people talk about the "religious right" and "Christian fascists" and all that Faranheit 911 nonsense, too. I mean, do people really not know? Do they really think F911 was "powerful," as I heard one sheep bleating, as they followed me out of the theater. I could hardly contain my laughter. Have they not heard about the Christian about to be hung in Iran, because he converted to Islam in 1980? Do they not know that Russia (atheist-socialist) is seriously contemplating making homosexuality a capital crime, like it is *now* in Hindu India? Are they really ignorant that some Muslims use pages of the Bible as toilet paper? That Buddhists in Tibet won't allow you to tell people about Jesus? For cryin' out loud, the point is not victimhood... the point is all the whining and shouting and, at Newsweek, it is about moving a plan, an agenda, a worldview forward. As a Christian, people can desecrate the Bible all they want... I'm not going to riot. They can persecute believers... I'm not going to whine about it. I will bring it to light and I will critique those who do those kinds of things, but I think it's counter-productive to respond like those poor people in Afghanistan or "the Arab Street," where you protest something by jumping around screaming, carrying placards and burning down your neighbor's businesses (sounds like a bunch of hippies at a demonstration of the WTO, doesn't it?).
Anyways, these things have gone on since the beginning of time and will go on... Newsweek and Eleanor Cliff will continue to be a living parody, not knowing they provide entertainment to thousands. The news anchors will still put on their best Ted Baxter voice and "scoop" us at 6PM with news, we already knew that morning or even the day before. Then, they will work us with the same "opinion" on the news I've heard since 1968 and revel in the illusion that what they do still influences the masses and that *they matter.* The question is, what are you going to do about it? Me? Im going to put my faith in Jesus, seek to understand what's going on around me by going to a varity of sources and thinking critically (not negatively, but with a healthy bit of skepticism) and move forward.
There... I feel better now. Thanks for the forum, Levi.
Wow, what a bunch of good comments to go with this post.
I really like this group and glad I stumbled on you all.
Well, I'm proud to say I used to call Newsweek "Newspeak" back when I was in high school in the 80s. I always knew their "news" was biased.
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