The problem with the Newsweek Quran retraction
White House Urges Newsweek to Repair Damage Caused by Report - New York Times (registration may be required. If so, go to BugMeNot)
Does anyone else see a problem here? Newsweek has retracted its story about Gitmo interogators flushing of the Quran. They did this not because it was a false statement but because the Bush administration forced them to out of concern for US image abroad — which is already where the Gitmo copy of the Quran may or may not be. Is there more proof needed that our government is manipulating our media?
Newsweek editor Mark Whitaker said the magazine decided to publish the short item after hearing from an unnamed U.S. official that a government probe had found evidence a Quran had been flushed down a toilet by interrogators.
But on Friday, a top Pentagon spokesman told the magazine that a review of the military’s investigation concluded ”it was never meant to look into charges of Quran desecration.” The spokesman also said the Pentagon had looked into other charges by detainees that the Quran had been desecrated and found them to be ”not credible.”
Whitaker said the magazine’s original source later said he could not be sure he had read about the alleged Quran incident in the report Newsweek cited and that it might have been in another document.