Newsweek's Retraction And Misplaced Priorities.

NBC News reports that Newsweek has retracted the May 9 story about Gitmo interrogators flushing a Koran down the toilet, going beyond today's earlier, somewhat tepid apology by Editor Mark Whitaker for possible mistakes in the brief piece, which later helped touch off deadly riots in Afghanistan that killed 15.

Tom Bevan at Real Clear Politics makes an important point about the whole thing: there is no excuse for the deaths caused by the rioters.

There's been a lot of well deserved outrage over Newsweek's semi-apology for its story alleging the desecration of a Koran at Guantanamo Bay. The details are still murky and the truth of the allegation remains in doubt. It may well be that Newsweek and its reporters delivered a terrible blow to their credibility and provided yet another example of the mainstream media rushing a poorly-sourced story to print with serious - in fact deadly - ramifications.

One thing I haven't seen, however, is any condemnation of the rioters themselves. The dismissive tone of most of the press reports I've read convey the impression that the rioting is understandable. Almost as if the alleged affront to the Koran somehow justifies the death of 15 people and the wounding of many more. As un-politically correct as it might be to say, let's stay focused on the truth: Newsweek's story did not kill people. Muslim mobs killed people.

Roger Kimball, of The New Criterion's blog, finds it disturbing people will kill over the reported desecration of a book, and wonders why the liberal MSM axis must always presume U.S. guilt when reports such as Newsweek's surface.

Nota bene: Newsweek got burned going after another "gotcha" story, alleging (incorrectly in this case, it turns out) gross insensitivity by U.S. keepers of POWs. But the greater issue by far, and the reason there are Islamic extremists being held as POWs by the U.S., is something we increasingly take for granted - Islamic extremists continue to plot and carry out a "holy war" against the "dirty kuffar," or "unbelievers" of the West.

Life is never going to be very pleasant for "holy warriors" in U.S. custody, even without their holy book being placed on toilet seats, or flushed away. "Gotcha" stories like this Newsweek piece gone wrong are fair game if properly sourced, but the "gotcha" obsession tends to obscure our nation's pressing battle against the forces of evil. Let there be no moral relativism here: We are for liberty and free enterprise; Islamic fundamentalists are for state theocracy, educational and economic stagnation, and subjugation of women.

They are evil, and we are a force for good, if certainly imperfect as a nation. The 21st Century is a better place to be today than the 8th Century. The Newsweek flap illustrates an American MSM teetering on the edge of irrelevance, not just for botching another anti-Bush Administration story, but because its priorities are so misplaced.

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at May 16, 2005 04:32 PM

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