Too Little, Too Late

When will the media learn?

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.

BTW-It looks like ship has already sailed...

Newsweek magazine may have apologized, but to many in the Muslim world, it's too late and much too little.

Muslims brushed off an apology to readers that appeared in this week's edition of the newsweekly that acknowledged errors in a story alleging U.S. interrogators at Guantanamo Bay desecrated the Koran, Islam's holy book.

Interestingly enough, Newsweek has an Arabic issue but there was no mention of the apology in this week's issue. Critics called it a strategic move in the face of the overwhelming and violent reaction.

I thought the press had the privilege of revealing their sources if the source proved to be untrustworthy. If the source told you something untrue, there is no reason for that person to remain anonymous. I am not sure why they have not, but it is interesting that they have not.

Why the press continues to use anonymous sources as the rule as opposed to the exception is beyond me? This Administration has successfully taken down the credibility CBS (Non-Denial of the National Guard story), the NYT (Miller WMD reporting), attempted The Washington Post (Mike Allen on the Schiavo Memo), and now Newsweek (w/WaPo due to their ownership) via this story with another non-denial that the Newsweek relied upon and threw back in their face 11 days later. They sit there in gaggle briefings with the Press Secretary literally laughing in their face and not giving them a straight answer for days on end, and then they report him telling them they need to get their facts straight. And they take it over and over again...There are a few metaphors I could use hear, but this is a family site.

There is a reason journalist's first job is to be skeptical. The lack of skepticism is now becoming the MSM's achilles heel. The MSM continues to chase their tails while Rupert Murdoch laughs all the way to the bank.

I have no sympathy for Michael Issikoff or Newsweek. I still have not seen any evidence that the story was untrue. But tell me again, why is the editor checking on sources after the story was published instead of before? It is like the Mike Allen Schiavo memo story. They retract a bit and then unretract a bit, but the damage is already done. They have only made the situation that much worse.

Let's say, for the sake of argument, they report that the story is absolutely true next week, would anyone believe them? That is the problem here. The same way the President has been using up his political capital, the MSM has just about used up there capitial and they don't get any new capital every 4 years.

You can forget about any adversarial stories from Newsweek for the next two or three years. There are not many investigative journalists out there and Newsweek just blew it. Perception is reality here, no matter how loud Juan Cole protests (and I happen to agree with the majority of his assessment)

As everyone who frequents this site should know by now, I am no tinfoiler, but let's take a look at the current state of affairs for the Neo-Conservative power structure.

Executive Branch...check

Legislative Branch...check

Judicial Branch...taking care of that this week

World Bank....check

Military...check

Delegitimize the UN and International Law...check with Bolton cleaning up loose ends

Delegitimize major non-conservative media outlets...check

As an Independent, this scares me just as much as a Democratic checklist of the same type would. I sincerely believe absolute power corrupts absolutely and absolute power is suddenly within reach.