Glass Houses

The White House is calling for Newsweek to retract its Guantanamo Bay Quran-desecration story over doubts about a report cited in the article (Newsweek has thus far expressed "regret" over the use of the questionable source). While there certainly ARE "doubts," and the source IS "questionable," it hasn't been proven fraudulent, and likely never will be. Similar accusations about Guantanamo have come up from plenty of other sources recently. But nevertheless, the wags, wankers, and wingnuts are screaming bloody murder. After all, we know that we should always be wary of erroneous reports, especially in cases when lives may be at stake. Anyway it seems a stretch to say that a Newsweek blurb single-handedly touched off an Afghani riot. But stretch they will, in an effort to collect another "Mainstream Media" scalp, a la Dan Rather, and push us all ever-so-slightly toward government censorship....It's what's best for us, you know. The First Amendment is getting people killed, can't you see that? Obviously civilians shouldn't be allowed to wield such power...

hm.

5/17 UPDATE: Newsweek has now retracted the story, AND: Last Thursday, when the validity of the Quran story was beginning to be questioned, The Defense Department had proclaimed that the protests in Afghanistan and the Newsweek article were unrelated. Apparently they needed a few days to see the potential political gain and change their tune.