Newsweek recently reported that U.S. military investigators desecrated a Quran by flushing it down a toilet in an effort to break Taliban and al-Qaeda prisoners into talking.
Today the editor sent out an apology saying “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."
Too little, too late. Riots are breaking out all over the Muslim world in response to this story. People have died, others have been injured, and anti-U.S. sentiment is now on the rise in countries like Afghanistan, which can ill-afford an uprising against the peacekeepers and the fledgling elected government. In the Muslim world, desecrating a Quran is punishable by death.
The extremists in Muslim countries won’t accept Newsweek’s apology or explanation of what it did. They now have their cause. Thanks for nothing, Newsweek.
In basic journalism classes, they say at least THREE sources are to be used, not two, but Newsweek had to have their scoop and printed the information from two questionable sources without considering the consequences if their information was incorrect.
Did they miss the lessons that CBS provided when “60 Minutes” took shortcuts on a story?
Here's the story.
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