White House Wants Retraction From Newsweek - Yahoo! News
Let's play a game of "Follow the Logic" with your host, Scott McClellan.
NEW YORK - In an apology to readers this week, Newsweek acknowledged errors in a story alleging U.S. interrogators at Guantanamo Bay desecrated the Quran. The accusations, which the magazine vowed to re-examine, spawned protests in Afghanistan that left 15 dead and scores injured.
Responding to harsh criticism from Muslim leaders worldwide, the Pentagon promised to investigate the charges and pinned the deadly clashes on Newsweek for what it described as "irresponsible" reporting.
"We regret that we got any part of our story wrong, and extend our sympathies to victims of the violence and to the U.S. soldiers caught in its midst," Editor Mark Whitaker wrote in the apology.
The White House said Monday that Newsweek's response was insufficient.
"It's puzzling. While Newsweek now acknowledges that they got the facts wrong, they refuse to retract the story," said presidential spokesman Scott McClellan. "I think there's a certain journalistic standard that should be met. In this instance it was not.
"This was a report based on a single anonymous source that could not substantiate the allegation that was made," McClellan added. "The report has had serious consequences. People have lost their lives. The image of the United States abroad has been damaged. I just find it puzzling."
OK, Scott, so are you saying that journalists should have a higher standard than, let's say, oh, the CIA or any other of the "intelligence" sources that told us Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, providing an excuse for us to invade a country, whereupon thousands of lives were lost and we tortured people, and our image wasn't "damaged" by that? But Newsweek, acting on a source from the Pentagon itself, publishes a blurb that already has been reported for almost a year now, is the cause of all this unrest and our "damaged" image?
Un-fucking-believable. Just when I think they can't top themselves, they top themselves.
Edit: As of 5:29, Newsweek is retracting the story. Cowards.