Guess 'oops' just isn't enough

The is absolutely no excuse for what Newsweek did in its Quran/Afghanistan/Guantanamo debacle. No excuse whatsoever. It's the epitome of shoddy journalism. Any beginning reporter knows that any time you are prepared to report something that has the potential to psis off about a third of the world, you had better be ABSOLUTELY, TOTALLY, POSITIVELY, COMPLETELY certain that it is true. And then you'd better check it again. And again. Then start over and prove it. Again.

Newsweek apparently did not do that. It is shameful. It is another black mark on the heads of all honest journalists.

But, owing to our system of free press in this country; it is not illegal nor is it punishable. Nor should it be.

Thankfully.

Newsweek has retracted its report. It has apologized. Over and over. As well it should. Fannies most likely will be kicked. Some heads most likely will roll. Internal sanctions should be implied; procedures created to make damned sure this never happens again.

They've gone on TV to admit they were wrong: From PBS:

"NewsHour with Jim Lehrer"
Newsweek editor Mark Whitaker on the Koran desecration piece: "After we
published it, no one in the government came back to us and said, you got
this wrong; you should correct it; this is going to have dire consequences
for 11 days -- until afterwards. And I think that what that says is that
no one anticipated the effect that this might have. In retrospect, perhaps
we all should have. We at Newsweek should have. Perhaps the Pentagon
officials who reviewed the story should have; perhaps the government. after the story was printed."

Should they do more?

The Afghan and Pakistani governments thinks so. In an AP report today:

Afghanistan's government said Tuesday that Newsweek should be held responsible for damages caused by deadly anti-American demonstrations after the magazine alleged U.S. desecration of the Quran, and it suggested that foreign forces may have helped turn protests violent.
Pakistan joined the international criticism of the magazine's article and said Newsweek's apology and retraction were "not enough."

What more should they do? Pay to clean up the mess from the unrest? Give me a break; even if they COULD, which is doubtful, they shouldn't attempt something like that. Don't be setting precedents like that.

And, of course, the U.S. government, which simply cannot turn down an opportunity to bash the U.S. press at every turn, also thinks more should/could be done:

From another AP report:

The White House on Monday said the magazine had taken a "good first step" by retracting its story, but it wants the magazine to do more to repair damage caused by the article.
"The report had real consequences," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Monday. "People have lost their lives. Our image abroad has been damaged. There are some who are opposed to the United States and what we stand for who have sought to exploit this allegation. It will take work to undo what can be undone."
McClellan said Newsweek should try to set the record straight by "clearly explaining what happened and how they got it wrong, particularly to the Muslim world, and pointing out the policies and practices of our military."

Sounds reasonable, until you take into account the source.

I'm stil waiting for the W-imbecile Administration to 'set the record straight' on Iraq.
Something along the lines of: 'Oops, there were no WMD after all; no Taliban bases, either; and by the way. we'd planned this invasion a year before we announced it. Then we fabricated the intelligence to justify it. We really just wanted to kick Saddam's butt and get the oil flowing again.'

Until the U.S. government does that, they have no standing to demand anything from Newsweek. Not even a free subscription.

Newsweek was wrong. No doubt.

But so are the W-imbeciles.

And so it goes.