The Irresponsible Media

[Merika]

Sunday, May 15, 2005, 5:15PM EDT US
NEW YORK - Newsweek magazine has apologized for errors in a story alleging that interrogators at the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay desecrated the Quran, saying it would re-examine the accusations, which sparked outrage and deadly protests in Afghanistan.

Fifteen people died and scores were injured in violence between protesters and security forces, prompting U.S. promises to investigate the allegations.

"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," Newsweek Editor Mark Whitaker wrote in a note to readers.

In an issue dated May 9, the magazine reported that U.S. military investigators had found evidence that interrogators placed copies of Islam's holy book in washrooms and had flushed one down the toilet to get inmates to talk.

Whitaker wrote that the magazine's information came from "a knowledgeable U.S. government source," and before publishing the item, writers Michael Isikoff and John Barry sought comment from two Defense Department officials. One declined to respond, and the other challenged another part of the story but did not dispute the Quran charge, Whitaker said.
---------------------------------------------

I don't think an apology is adequate. I think they should have serious charges pressed against them. Half the crap the world reads coming from our own media...isn't even correct. The apologies later rarely make it into international news and therefore people assume things which are proven NOT to the true.

Ofcourse that's not even a point...considering that people keep dying due to faulty reporting. How much more wrong can one thing be?