Shoot the Messenger

Newsweek 'scandal'. Some perspective, anyone? from Observer Blog.

Is it possible that BushCo is nailing the final nails in the free press coffin with this latest tactic to kill Newsweek? It is a coincidence that this corresponds with the attacks on Bill Moyers and PBS's NOW program. This Newsweek thing is getting out of hand. The type of abuse and desecration to the Quran has been reported many times in the past with much to do about nothing. Why the sudden blowup? Could it be that a mainstream American news source finally made a move to call out BushCo atrocities? Is it that the foreign press and independent rags don't count? See, this all makes perfect sense - deflection, distraction, and denial.

DailyKos noted this statement from Press Secretary McClellan today (from Reuters):

The White House said on Monday an inaccurate Newsweek report based on an anonymous source had damaged the U.S. image overseas by claiming U.S. interrogators desecrated the Koran at Guantanamo Bay. . . . “It’s puzzling that while Newsweek now acknowledges that they got the facts wrong, they refused to retract the story,” White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. “I think there’s a certain journalistic standard that should be met and in this instance it was not.”

“The report has had serious consequences,” McClellan said. “People have lost their lives. The image of the United States abroad has been damaged.”

Thanks Scott, for your hypocritical remarks and your lecture on journalistic standards. And the bad and false information that led to the Iraqi war?? Where many, many people died and still dying? I am at a bit of a loss here...