A Weekend Away Brings Changes .:. grubbykid.com

A Weekend Away Brings Changes

Man, I'm away from the computer and unable to keep up with the outrage du jour, and look what's happened: Newsweek retracts story about flushing the Koran down the toilet:

After a drumbeat of criticism from the Bush administration and others, Newsweek magazine yesterday went beyond an apology it issued Sunday and retracted an article published May 1 that stated that American interrogators at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, had tried to rattle Muslim detainees by flushing a Koran down a toilet.

The original article was blamed for inciting widespread protests and riots in the Muslim world, where desecration of the Koran is viewed as an incendiary act, and where at least 17 people were killed in the ensuing violence.
...
Mr. McClellan and other administration officials blamed the Newsweek article for setting off the anti-American violence that swept Afghanistan and Pakistan. "The report had real consequences," Mr. McClellan said. "People have lost their lives. Our image abroad has been damaged."

But only a few days earlier, in a briefing on Thursday, Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had said that the senior commander in Afghanistan believed the protests had stemmed from that country's reconciliation process.

"He thought it was not at all tied to the article in the magazine," General Myers said.

But that isn't enough, the Bush administration is actively neutering an independent news organization, read this MSNBC story, Newsweek retracts disputed Quran story, and pick out where the administration should butt out:

The White House says Newsweek took a "good first step" by retracting its story that U.S. investigators found evidence interrogators at Guantanamo Bay desecrated the Quran, but it wants the magazine to do more to repair damage caused by the article.

I'm with Josh on this one, what does the Whitehouse have anything to do with this besides using this as a political sword to neuter another news organization? What is this "first step," and what does Newsweek owe the Bush administration since Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said explicitly that He thought it was not at all tied to the article in the magazine? Also someone who should know, Pentagon Spokesman Larry Di Rita, agreed with General Myers:

"The nature of where these things occurred, how quickly they occurred, the nature of individuals who were involved in it, suggest that they may be organized events that are using this alleged allegation as a pretext for activity that was already planned," said DiRita.

That is, until the Bush administration took to this cause in order to try to neuter another news organization. This is what Di Rita said later to NBC in full spin mode:

"People are dead because of what this son of a bitch said. How could he be credible now?"

So who's right? The Bush administration claiming that Newsweek has blood on their hands, or a distinguished General? I'll take career military over political appointees, thank you very much. Just for fun, here is a list of journalists writing about flushing the Quran. No riots were blamed on these reports, so again, who do really believe?

Another thing I missed was Keith Olbermann calling for the resignation of Scott McClellan. Oh how I miss former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, who elevated bullshit to levels that McClellan can only dream of.

Oh, and joy of joy: President's approval rating is at 43%. I wonder when the kid-gloves will come off of the vanity media and the talking heads?

As usual, Matthew Yglesias' Monday Weekend Editorial Update, where he reads and summarizes the weekend's editorials so you don't have to, is invaluable.

On the plane ride back from the Midwest, I read Robert D. Kaplan's Atlantic article, How We Would Fight China, and frankly, I was just baffled by the tone of the article. From asserting that Pacific Command is outside the sphere of D.C. control and politics, to blatant disdain for everyone inside the Beltway, to asserting that the American people would fold if the Chinese would just sink a single aircraft carrier, I just didn't get the article. Somehow Kaplan took every lesson learned during the Cold War and then applied them to China, when the two situations are not congruent. I need to think more about this article, but on first pass, I think that spending billions of dollars to create another Cold War with China is a fundamentally bad idea. And I say this knowing that I have no alternative right now.

Comments

Dad says:

We do actually get the news here in the Midwest, we're just on a 48 hour delay!!