Tuesday, May 17, 2005

NEWSWEEK RETRACTS STORY

SBS - The World News

Newsweek's editor Mark Whitaker: "Based on what we know now, we are retracting our original story that an internal military investigation had uncovered Koran abuse at Guantanamo Bay." He was referring to an article in May 9th issue, claiming that a Koran had been thrown into a toilet to upset Muslim prisoners. Last week at least 16 people in Afghanistan were killed in violent clashes sparked by the report.

But the magazine’s climb down hasn’t appeased its critics. In a rare show of unity, both the US administration and Islamic groups have rejected the magazine's apology. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice described the story as appalling, admitting it had created a major problem for Washington in the Muslim world. The White House had said Newsweek's apology didn’t go far enough.

However White House criticism went as far as to suggest that the poor journalistic standards were to blame for the subsequent violence and deaths. "People lost their lives. People are dead," said US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. "People need to be very careful about what they say, just as they need to be careful about what they do." The Pentagon was also quick to condemn the Newsweek story. "The unfortunate part about it is you can't go back and undo or retract the damage that they've done, not only to this nation but those who have been hacked, injured and some even killed as a result of these false allegations," said spokesman Bryan Whitman.

However, while Newsweek's behaviour was appalling, it did not cause the deaths. . .The murderers did that...

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